Daniel 5.7-Belshazzar Summons Wise Men To Interpret The Writing On The Wall And Promises A Reward If They Can
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday November 28, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 5:7-Belshazzar Summons The Wise Men To Interpret The Writing On The Wall And Promises A Reward If They Can
Lesson # 148
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 5:1.
Daniel 5:1 King Belshazzar threw an enormous banquet for a thousand of his nobles. He even drank wine excessively directly in front of the thousand. 2 Belshazzar issued an order while under the influence of the wine causing the gold and silver articles to be brought in which Nebuchadnezzar, his great-grandfather caused to be confiscated from the temple, which was in Jerusalem, in order that the king, his nobles as well as his wives and in addition his concubines could drink with them. 3 Therefore, the gold and silver articles were brought in, which were confiscated from the temple, which was God’s house, which was in Jerusalem so that the king, his nobles as well as his wives and in addition his concubines could drink with them. 4 They drank wine while they praised gods composed of gold as well as silver, bronze, iron, wood and in addition stone. 5 During this time, the fingers of a human hand appeared while writing on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, directly in front of the lampstand so that the king observed the palm of the hand which was writing. 6 Then the king, his countenance was changed for him. Also, his thoughts caused him to be terrified so that his hip joints gave way resulting in his knees knocking together, one against the other. (My translation)
Daniel 5:7 The king called aloud to bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans and the diviners. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, “Any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me shall be clothed with purple and have a necklace of gold around his neck, and have authority as third ruler in the kingdom.” (NASB95)
Daniel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is employing the figure of “asyndeton” in order to emphasize from Belshazzar’s perspective the seriousness of the situation facing him when an unattached human hand began writing on one of the walls of the banquet hall behind the lampstand.
The figure emphasizes from the king’s perspective the urgency of the situation in that he wanted to understand the meaning and significance of this unattached hand and what it wrote on the wall.
“The king” is the masculine singular form of the noun mě∙lěḵ (מֶלֶךְ) (meh´-lek), which of course is used with reference to Belshazzar referring to the fact that he was governmental head of Babylon.
Of course, he was a co-regent with his father Nabonidus.
“Called” is the masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb qerā(ʾ) (קְרָא) (ker-aw´), which means “to shout out an order” since the purpose clause to follow indicates that Belshazzar ordered the wise men to be brought to the banquet in order to read and explain the meaning of the writing on the wall.
“Aloud” is composed of the preposition b- (בְּ־) (beh) and its object is the masculine singular pausal noun ḥǎ∙yil (חַיִל) (khah´-yil).
The noun ḥǎ∙yil means “authority” in the sense of possessing the power to command the behavior of others and compel obedience and is the object of the preposition b-, which is a marker of manner.
The manner in which Belshazzar shout out this order to bring his wise men to the banquet hall was “with authority” in the sense that he spoke in a manner which compelled obedience by those who would execute the order and bring the wise men to the banquet room.
“The conjurers,” is the masculine plural form of the noun ʾā∙šǎp̄ (אַשָּׁף) (ash-shawf), which refers to a necromancer who was an individual who attempted to contact the dead for the purpose of magically revealing the future or influencing the course of events.
“The Chaldeans” is the masculine plural form of the noun ʾā∙šǎp̄ (אַשָּׁף) (ash-shawf), which refers to astrologers.
The astrologers studied the magnitudes, movements and constitutions of the heavenly bodies.
They are interested in the effect of these celestial phenomena on human life and supposedly can foretell events by the positions of the planets and stars.
The Babylonians developed sophisticated methods of reading the stars to determine proper times for action.
“The diviners” is the masculine plural peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb gezǎr (גְּזַר) (ghez-ar´), which refers to those who practice divination whether rhabdomancy, hepatoscopy, teraphim, necromancy, hydromancy, lots, and dreams.
Rhabdomancy was divination by use of a rod or staff (cf. Exodus 4:4, 17; 17:9) while hepatoscopy was divination by the examination of an animal’s liver (Ezekiel 21:19-21).
Another form of divination was through the use of teraphim, i.e. divination by consulting with images.
Hydromancy was divination by the observation of water.
Divination was practiced by drawing lots and interpreting dreams.
Belshazzar promises the wise men that he will clothe them in a purple robe, which was the common sign of rank worn by kings in the ancient world.
He also promises to put a gold chain around their neck, which was like the purple robe, was a mark of royalty in the ancient world.
“And have authority as third ruler in the kingdom” is advancing upon and intensifying Belshazzar’s previous statement.
“Have authority as third ruler” is composed of the masculine singular ordinal number tǎl∙tā(ʾ) (תַּלְתָּא) (tel-awth´), “third” which is followed by the preposition b- (בְּ־) (beh) “in” and its object is the feminine singular construct form of the noun mǎl∙ḵûṯ (מַלְכוּת) (mal-kooth), “the kingdom” and then we have the third person masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active imperfect form of the verb šelēṭ (שְׁלֵט) (shel-ate´), “have authority as.”
The verb šelēṭ means “to rule in authority” indicating that Belshazzar is promising to the wise men that if any one of them could meet his request they would be made third ruler in the kingdom.
The ordinal number tǎl∙tā(ʾ) means “third” indicating that if any one of them could meet Belshazzar’s request, he would make them the third ruler in the kingdom.
Daniel 5:7 The king authoritatively shouted out an order for the purpose of causing the necromancers, astrologers as well as diviners to be brought in. He declared to the city of Babylon’s wise men, “Any person who can read aloud as well as can make known its interpretation to me will be clothed with a purple robe as well as a golden chain around his neck. Indeed, they will rule as third in the kingdom.” (My translation)
Daniel 5:6 presented Belshazzar’s response in terms of how he acted to the hand writing on the wall behind the lampstand in the banquet room whereas Daniel 5:7 presents to the reader his verbal response to this supernatural occurrence.
His first action was to authoritatively shout out an order to bring in necromancers, astrologers and diviners so that they could read and interpret the inscription.
The king then promises the wise men that he will reward them if they can meet his request.
They will be clothed with a purple robe and a golden chain would be placed around their neck as well.
Both of which were marks of royalty in the ancient world.
They would thus be made third ruler in the kingdom.
Of course, Belshazzar was co-regent with his father Nabonidus, thus the reason for offering the wise men the position of being third ruler in the kingdom.
The king’s promise to the wise men here in Daniel 5:7 reveals that he fully believed that he would continue to rule as king over Babylon and that he was not very worried about the Medes and the Persians who were attacking the city at the time.
He was not very concerned about the invaders outside the walls of the city since it had not fallen to an invading army for 1,000 years because of its extremely strong fortifications.
Furthermore, there were huge stockpiles of food that could sustain the capital for several years.
This is something which an invading army would not be able to boast of since they would have to forage for food.
Interestingly, Belshazzar requests that the wise men read the inscription, which seems strange since it was written in Aramaic.
The king’s difficulty in reading the writing may have been that it was written in Aramaic script without the vowels being supplied.
However, if it was written in cuneiform, the vowels would have been included.
Daniel does not explain the difficulty in reading the writing on the wall, but the problem apparently was not that it was a strange language but rather what the words signified prophetically.
The vowels would be supplied in ordinary discourse.
However, in a cryptic statement such as found with this inscription the addition of vowels is a problem.
The inscription on the wall may have appeared like this, “MN’ MN’ TQL UPRSN.”
The order of the letters in the Aramaic, of course, would be the reverse of this, that is, from right to left.
Also, if, some unfamiliar form of these characters was used, it would indeed have required divine revelation to not only provide an interpretation for the inscription but also to read it.
This helps us to understand why Belshazzar requested that someone read the inscription for him.