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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
the Handwriting on the Wall
Dan 5:1-16
The name of Belshazzar has been deciphered in inscriptions found at Babylon, from which it is inferred that he was associated with his father in the kingdom, and was left to defend Babylon. He was therefore a grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, the word “father,” Dan 5:11, being used in the sense of “ancestor.” The great walls of the banqueting hall covered with sculptures and sumptuous decorations; the tablets covered by cuneiform descriptions of the triumphs of former kings; what a feast this was with the thousand lords; the most beautiful women of the land; the concourse of magnates of religion and the state! The wine flowed in rivers, and laughter rang through the vaulted hall. Upon the table stood the vessels of the Temple, and notably the seven-branched candlestick, which cast its radiance on the wall, clearly illumining the fingers of the hand that wrote. The words, though Chaldee, may have been written in Hebrew characters. Conscience anticipated Daniel, and filled the king’s heart with foreboding. The queen may have been the great Nitocris, wife of Nebuchadnezzar, the ancestor of the present king. God has His own way of bringing His people to the front when He needs them.