After Nebuchadnezzar died in 563BC, his son Evil-Merodach (in Akkadian "Amel-Marduk") took over the kingdom.

Amel-Marduk immediately released Jehoiachin, the captured Jewish king, from prison, giving him an honorable place at the court (see 2Kings 25:27-30). Was this because his father's change of heart towards the God of the Jews softened his own attitude?

Neriglissar takes charge

Two years later the new king was assassinated by his brother-in-law, General Neriglissar (whose name means "Nergal, protect the king"). He had served under Nebuchadnezzar when Jerusalem was destroyed. His high military spending led to inflation that rose to staggering levels.

Civil revolt and a new king

Neriglissar died four years later in 556BC and was succeeded by his son Labashi-Marduk, who lasted only nine months. He was murdered by Nabonidus, the leader of a massive civil revolt. To legitimize his place on the throne, Nabonidus later married a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. He was the son of a high priestess of a cult that followed the moon god Sin. His religious views deeply offended the Babylonian priests. The priests are said to have eventually assisted the Persian king Cyrus in his efforts to seize Babylon.

Nabonidus was a weak king, and unpopular at home. He devoted most of his attention to Northern Arabia and Edom, which he conquered in 552. He made his home the city of Teima in Arabia, putting Belshazzar, his son, in charge as co-regent responsible for the province of Babylon and possibly the entire empire.

Cyrus makes his move

Towards the end of the 550's Nabonidus had supported a revolt over Astyages, king of the Medes to the north. This revolt was led by the king's Persian son-in-law, Cyrus (some commentaries say Cyrus was Astyages' nephew).

Cyrus had also asked for assistance from Lydia but when Lydia's king Croesus turned him down he simply conquered Lydia, then turned his attention on the Chaldean empire. He swept into the nation from the east and north, quickly subduing cities grown weak under the inept leadership of Nabonidus and his son Belshazzar. He destroyed the city of Opis just north of Babylon with considerable destruction and loss of life. A few days later he sized Sippar without a battle.

It was now the beginning of September, the month of Tishri. The heat of the desert gave way to icy cold nights. By now, Nabonidus had retreated south to the city of Teima, while Belshazzar shut himself up inside the impressive walled city of Babylon, a city considered unconquerable. Archeological records show that the Babylonians had brought their idols inside the city walls, a sign that they were preparing for war.

On the 15th of Tishri, Cyrus and his army gathered around Babylon like a cloud, while nobles and officials throughout the city dressed in their finest clothing to attend a gala party organized by the king. That fateful day begins our narrative of Daniel chapter 5.

Daniel 5:1-4

Belshazzar the king gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine before the thousand.

While Belshazzar was drinking the wine, he commanded to bring in the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem; so that the king, and his officials, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.

So they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God at Jerusalem; and the king and his officials, his wives, and his concubines, drank from them.

As they drank wine, they praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, iron, wood and stone.

A feast for 1,000 nobles is a significant event. It was a sign of defiance against the situation in which the city found itself, facing a hostile army outside the gates of the city. But it was much more than just snubbing their noses against Cyrus.

Of all the vessels available from all the conquered nations -- many of them quite significant compared to Judah -- why did Belshazzar choose to pick on the Jews? Those vessels had sat in the museum for 47 years. There was something much deeper going on behind this request. It was a public defiance against the God of the Hebrews and the predictions from 150 years earlier that Babylon would be given to Cyrus.

Isaiah 45-46 predicted Cyrus by name, indicating that God would use him to conquer Babylon. With an estimated half million Jews living in various parts of the empire, they had most likely been discussing these passages for weeks now with an attitude of eager expectation. No doubt this got back to Belshazzar and he wanted to make a public statement to regain confidence in his leadership. One way to do that would be to publicly humiliate the God of the Jews.

Daniel 5:5-9

In the same hour the fingers of a man's hand suddenly appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace near the lampstand. The king watched the part of the hand that wrote.

Then the king's face became pale, and he became so frightened that the joints of his loins shook and his knees knocked together.

The king cried out to bring in the astrologers, Chaldeans and diviners. And the king said to the wise men of Babylon, "Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its meaning, shall be clothed in purple and have a chain of gold placed around his neck, and will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.

Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing, nor tell the king what it meant.

So king Belshazzar became even more afraid, and all the color drained from his face, and his nobles were baffled.

Remember Nebuchadnezzar's "voice from heaven," timed precisely to the second that he lifted up his voice in pride? It seems likely that the hand writing on the wall appeared with uncanny timing, probably at the very moment of an announcement or joke against the God of Israel.

The Aramaic text describing Belshazzar's reaction is perhaps best translated by the quaint KJV:

"the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against the other"

The king was not just shocked, he was terrified beyond ordinary fear. The God he had just mocked moments earlier had suddenly made His presence known before the king and his guests in a dramatic, powerful way.

A lampstand is mentioned. There were actually many lampstands in the banquet hall, so this reference could mean something significant, such as a Jewish menorah taken from the temple along with the other artifacts. Notice also the reference to the hand writing on the plaster of the wall. We know from recent archeology that all the walls of this room except one were covered in glazed blue bricks. One wall was white plaster, making it clear that Daniel was indeed an eyewitness to these events. It also suggests that the hand wrote into the charcoal dust that would have gathered on this white wall from the oil fire of the lampstand. Picture the scene: a mysterious hand appears in thin air and carves letters out of the blackened area of the wall or marks the white plaster. Whichever approach was used, it would have been a startling and frightening event for the audience.

Belshazzar could offer no rank higher than "third highest ruler" because he himself was just second in command, after his father Nabonidus.

The king called for his wise men, but Daniel was not among them. He would have been well over 80 years of age by this time. He was probably semi-retired, though he would serve the next king for a short time after Babylon changes hands.

next: Interpretation

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