Daniel 5.19-Daniel Reminds Belshazzar That Because God Gave Nebuchadnezzar Such Power All The Nations, Ethnicities And Language Groups Trembled With Fear Before Him
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday January 10, 2013
Daniel: Daniel 5:19-Daniel Reminds Belshazzar That Because God Gave Nebuchadnezzar Such Power All The Nations, Ethnicities And Language Groups Trembled With Fear Before Him
Lesson # 160
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. 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.” 8 Therefore, each and every one of the king’s wise men came in but they were totally unable to read or cause the interpretation to be made known to the king. 9 Thus causing the king to be extremely terrified so that his countenance was changed on him as well as causing his nobles to be perplexed. 10 The queen entered the banquet hall because of the king’s words as well as his nobles. The queen responded and said, “O king, live forever! Please, by no means let your thoughts cause you to be terrified so that they by no means cause your countenance to be changed! 11 There is a man in your kingdom who possesses God’s Holy Spirit in him. Specifically, during the days of your great-grandfather, illumination, discernment as well as wisdom in accordance with God’s wisdom were observed in him. Indeed, King Nebuchadnezzar, your great-grandfather, your great-grandfather the king, promoted him to be commander over the occult priests, necromancers, astrologers and diviners 12 because in him, in Daniel whom the king assigned him the name Belteshazzar, was found an extraordinary spirit, knowledge, discernment interpreting dreams, explaining riddles as well as solving difficult problems. Please summon Daniel right now in order to cause the interpretation to be known.” 13 Consequently, Daniel was ordered to enter the king’s presence. The king asked a question and said to Daniel, “Are you Daniel, who is one of the deported people from Judah whom my great-grandfather the king ordered to be brought from Judah? 14 Likewise I heard concerning you that God’s Spirit is in you so that illumination, discernment as well as extraordinary wisdom were observed in you. 15 Now at this time, the wise men, the necromancers were ordered to enter my presence in order that they could read aloud as well as to make known to me its interpretation. However, they were totally unable to cause the message’s interpretation to be made known to me. 16 But I myself personally heard concerning you that you are able to provide interpretations as well as solve difficult problems. Now, if you are able to read aloud the inscription as well as cause its interpretation to be made known to me, you will be clothed with a purple robe as well as a golden chain around you neck. Indeed, you will rule as third over the kingdom. 17 Then Daniel responded and said, “Please, keep your gifts for yourself or please give your rewards for another. However, I will read aloud to the king as well as cause the interpretation to be made known to him. 18 As for you, O king, the Most High God gave to Nebuchadnezzar, your great-grandfather a kingdom, yes a great kingdom as well as honor, yes, great honor.” (Author’s translation)
Daniel 5:19 “Because of the grandeur which He bestowed on him, all the peoples, nations and men of every language feared and trembled before him; whomever he wished he killed and whomever he wished he spared alive; and whomever he wished he elevated and whomever he wished he humbled.” (NASB95)
Not translated by the NASB95 is the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), which is emphatic meaning that the word is introducing a statement that is advancing upon and intensifying Daniel’s previous statement, which he addressed to Belshazzar.
The advancement and intensification is that Daniel goes from stating that God gave Nebuchadnezzar his greatness to telling him that this greatness caused the subjects in his world-wide kingdom to trembled with fear before him.
“Because of the grandeur” is composed of the preposition min (מִן) (min), “because of” and its object is the feminine singular form of the noun reḇû (רְבוּ) (reb-oo´), “grandeur.”
The noun reḇû means “greatness” in the sense that Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom had become distinguished and eminent throughout the earth so that it stood above all the other kingdoms of the earth.
This noun is the object of the preposition min, which is functioning as a marker of cause meaning that it is presenting to the reader the cause or the reason why each and every one of the nations, ethnicities and language groups in Nebuchadnezzar’s world-wide empire trembled with fear before him.
“All the peoples, nations and men of every language” is composed of the singular construct form of the noun kōl (כֹּל) (kole), “all” which is modifying the masculine plural form of the noun ʿǎm (עַם) (am), “the peoples” which is followed by the masculine plural noun ʾǔm∙mā(h) (אֻמָּה) (oom-maw´), “nations” and then we have the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the masculine plural noun liš∙šān (לִשָּׁן) (lish-shawn´), “language.”
The noun ʿǎm is in the plural and means “nations” in the sense of a large group based on various cultural, physical and geographical ties and speaks of national entities.
The noun ʾǔm∙mā(h) is in the plural and means “ethnicities” referring to an ethnic group, divided on the basis of constituting a unique entity and thus speaks of the various ethnicities in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom.
The noun liš∙šān means “language groups” referring to a distinct, rational form of communication unique to a socio-linguistic group, i.e. national people and speaks of those groups who share the same language.
The noun kōl refers to the totality of these nations, ethnicities and language groups who trembled with fear before Nebuchadnezzar emphasizing that there were no exceptions.
This expression contains the figure of “synecdoche of the whole,” which means, that the nations, ethnicities and language groups are being put for the persons, who belong to each of these groups indicating that every person trembled with fear before Nebuchadnezzar.
“Feared and trembled before him” is composed of the third person masculine plural peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb ḥǎwā(h) (חֲוָה) (khav-aw´), which is not translated and followed by the masculine plural peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb zûaʿ (זוּעַ) (zoo´-ah), “feared” and then we have the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the masculine plural peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active participle form of the verb deḥǎl (דְּחַל) (deh-khal´), “trembled” and then we have the preposition min (מִן) (min), which is followed by the preposition qǒḏām (קֳדָם) (kod-awm´) and together they are translated “before” and then we have the third person masculine singular pronominal suffix hû(ʾ) (הוּא) (who), “him.”
The verb hǎwā(h) denotes each and every one of the nations, ethnicities and language groups in Nebuchadnezzar’s empire existed in the state of being in a state of fear of him because God gave him greatness.
The verb zûaʿ means “to tremble” indicating that each and every one of the nations, ethnicities and language groups in Nebuchadnezzar’s world-wide kingdom were affected with great fear or anxiety in his presence because God made him the preeminent and most distinguished and powerful king on earth.
The verb deḥǎl means “to fear” referring to the state of fear indicating that the greatness God gave to Nebuchadnezzar induced fear in each and every one of the nations, ethnicities and language groups in his world-wide kingdom.
The conjunction wa is used this time to join the verbs zûaʿ and deḥǎl in order to communicate one idea, which is called “hendiadys” indicating that these two verbs express one idea.
They express the idea that because of the greatness God gave to Nebuchadnezzar, each and every one of the nations, ethnicities and language groups in his kingdom were in a state of trembling, yes, in a state of fear in his presence.
The third person masculine singular pronominal suffix hû(ʾ) means “him” since it functions as a pronoun referring of course to Nebuchadnezzar and is the object of the prepositions min, which is a marker of source and qǒḏām, which means “in the presence of.”
Together, they denote that each and every person from the nations, ethnicities and language groups in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom trembled, yes were in a state of fear “from being in the presence of him.”
“Whomever he wished he killed” denotes that Nebuchadnezzar was characterized as executing whomever he desired.
“And whomever he wished he spared alive” stands in contrast to the previous description of Nebuchadnezzar which tells the reader that he was also characterized as putting to death whomever he desired and denotes Nebuchadnezzar was characterized as sparing whomever he desired.
“And whomever he wished he elevated” denotes that Nebuchadnezzar was characterized as promoting whomever he desired in the sense that he caused them to rise in rank and honor and power.
“And whomever he wished he humbled” stands in contrast to the previous description of Nebuchadnezzar which tells the reader that he was characterized as promoting whomever he desired and denotes that Nebuchadnezzar was characterized during his reign as demoting whomever he desired.
Daniel 5:19 “Indeed, because of this greatness, which He gave to him, each and every person belonging to the nations, ethnicities as well as language groups was in state of trembling, yes in a state of fear from being in the presence of him. He was characterized as putting to death whomever he desired whereas he was characterized as sparing whomever he desired. He was also characterized as promoting whomever he desired while on the other hand he was characterized as demoting whomever he desired.” (My translation)
In Daniel 5:18-23, Daniel rebukes Belshazzar for becoming arrogant before God and not humbling himself even though he was well aware of how God dealt with his great-grandfather Nebuchadnezzar, implying that Belshazzar was inferior to Nebuchadnezzar.
In verse 18, Daniel reminds Belshazzar that the Most High God had given his great-grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar a great kingdom as well as great honor.
Then, here in verse 19, he reminds the king that because of the greatness, which the Most High God had given his great-grandfather the inhabitants of the earth trembled with fear before Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel then gives examples of the kind of power Nebuchadnezzar wielded during his reign.
First of all, he was characterized during his reign as putting to death and sparing whomever he desired.
These first two examples describe Nebuchadnezzar as sovereign over the lives of the inhabitants in his world wide kingdom because God had delegated to him this sovereign power.
Daniel 2:12-13 provides an example of the sovereign power Nebuchadnezzar possessed with regards to putting to death whomever he desired.
In this passage, he ordered the execution of each and every one of the city of Babylon’s wise men because they were unable to tell him the content of his dream.
Daniel chapter three serves as another example in that Nebuchadnezzar executed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego because they would not worship the golden statue that he erected of himself on the plain of Dura in the province of the city of Babylon.
Also, Daniel chapter two records that the wise men were not executed because of Nebuchadnezzar’s decision not to do so.
Of course, this was at the request of Daniel who requested the executioner Arioch not kill them because he knew the content of the king’s dream as well as its interpretation.
Thus, the implication is that the wise men got a stay of execution because of Daniel’s request that Nebuchadnezzar would not do so because he could meet his demands.
Daniel then reminds Belshazzar that his great-grandfather was characterized during his reign as promoting and demoting whomever he desired.
These two examples also form a single unit as the first two.
Daniel 2:47-49 provides an example of Nebuchadnezzar promoting and demoting whomever he desired.
In this passage, Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel ruler over the entire province of the city of Babylon.
The king made him the chief over the senior officials over each and every one of the city of Babylon’s wise men.
Then, at the request of Daniel, the king assigned the administration over the province of the city of Babylon to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego while Daniel was at the king’s court.
The obvious implication of the promotion of these four men is that the wise men were demoted because the king promoted Daniel as their commander.
Also, every one who served in the administration of the province of the city of Babylon was under the authority of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as a result of being promoted over the administration of the province of the city of Babylon.
So in Daniel 5:19 Daniel is teaching Belshazzar that the Most High God delegated sovereign authority to his great-grandfather Nebuchadnezzar, which is what the apostle Paul taught in Romans 13:1-7.
In Daniel 5:19, Daniel is teaching Belshazzar that the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, his great-grandfather absolute sovereign authority over the inhabitants of the earth.
He is telling Belshazzar that Nebuchadnezzar possessed complete power over each and every inhabitant of the earth, so that he exercised his will absolutely, without any necessary conditioning by a finite will or wills.
His great-grandfather exercised supreme power over various nations, ethnicities and language groups absolutely because God gave Nebuchadnezzar this authority.