5:1-30) and during whose reign he received two visions (Dan. Daniel had a reputation among the Babylonian courts. Belshazzar was not even the first ruler in the kingdom and was humiliated by the fact that Babylon was besieged and had already lost its power over the provinces surrounding the city. Belshazzar then offers Daniel the same promise he made to the others of being clothed with scarlet and having a chain of gold and the privilege of being the third ruler in the kingdom, that is, the triumvir. 7:1; 8:1). Nabonidus), but during the period of the regency there are references to both "offerings to the king" and "offerings to the son of the king". Daniel, in his condemnation of Belshazzar before interpreting the handwriting on the wall, honors King Nebuchadnezzar . Home; Blog; Bible survey. They were said to have had enough food stored up for 20 years. The chronology of the three Babylonian kings is given in the Talmud as follows: Nebuchadnezzar reigned forty-five years, Evil-merodach twenty-three, and Belshazzar was monarch of Babylonia for two years, being killed at the beginning of the third year on the fatal night of the fall of Babylon (Meg. The Cross And Separation From The World (1 Peter 4:1-6), 7. Daniel read the writing and Belshazzar made him the third ruler in the kingdom. On his return, the doorkeepers refused to admit him. The queen uses the very words which presumably she had heard Nebuchadnezzar express (Dan 4:8, 9, 18). This was not prompted by disrespect nor by the evident fact that they would be short-lived. Belshazzar played a pivotal role in the coup d'tat that overthrew the king Labashi-Marduk (r.556 BC) and brought Nabonidus to power in 556 BC. Belshazzar became regent of Babylon in 549 when his father left for Tema so he was presumably already an adult at this time. With only the fingers of the hand visible and producing writing upon the wall, the spectacle immediately attracted attention. The Medes and Persians managed to slip into the city secretly while all the Babylonians feasted. Nabonidus was allowed to live in Carmania until the time of his death, but he was not allowed to come to Babylonia.245, The account of Berosus preserved by Josephus is supported by other evidence such as the short fragment of Abydenus preserved by Eusebius.246, Until the discovery of the Nabonidus Cylinder, no mention of Belshazzar, whom Daniel declares to be king of Babylon, had been found in extrabiblical literature. The solution to the problem which the queen suggested was that they invite Daniel the prophet, who had been discovered as a man of wisdom by Nebuchadnezzar, to interpret the writing. Cyrus, emperor of Persia, captures Babylon. Leupold suggests that PHARSIN could be understood by changing the vowels to be Persians284 and might have a double meaning as indicated by Daniels explanation given to the Medes and Persians. A pun may be intended on this third word. He died about 561 and was succeeded by his son Awil-Marduk (Evil-Merodach of 2 Kings). . Nebuchadnezzar II was the eldest son and successor of Nabopolassar, founder of the Chaldean empire. Prophecy anticipating the fall of Babylon is found in both Isaiah and Jeremiah, written many years before. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The text is definitely from the sixth century B.C. Some have found, in the six materials mentioned, a typical reference to the number of the world amenable to judgment because of its hostility to God.264 In the original, the gods of gold and silver are separated by the conjunction and, not true of the listing of the gods of brass, iron, wood, and stone, as if there were two classes of deities. His son, Laborosoardoch, a mere boy, occupied it for nine months, when, owing to the depraved disposition which he showed, a conspiracy was formed against him, and he was beaten to death by his friends. Belshazzar (prince of Bel), the last king of Babylon.In ( Daniel 5:2) Nebuchadnezzar is called the father of Belshazzar.This, of course, need only mean grandfather or ancestor. Under this interpretation, the writing would read, A maneh, a marieh, a shekel, and a half-maneh. Having arrived at this conclusion, however, it still remains to be determined what it means. 282 Since Prince, who wrote his commentary in 1899, many others have followed the suggestion of Clermont-Ganneau (Journal Asiatique) 1886, that the inscription contained a string of weight names. The king was drinking wine with them. There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers; Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation. Cyrus took Babylon, and after giving orders to raze the outer walls of the city, because it resented a very redoubtable and formidable appearance, proceeded to Borsippa to esiege Nabonnedus. According to the accounts in the Bible and Xenophon, Belshazzar held a last great feast at which he saw a hand writing on a wall the following words in Aramaic: mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. The prophet Daniel, interpreting the handwriting on the wall as Gods judgment on the king, foretold the imminent destruction of the city. As one holding her position was normally highly regarded and treated with respect, she could speak out in a way that no other could do. Freedman cites H. Louis Ginsberg (Studies in Daniel, pp. [43] Belshazzar appears to have worked to restore Marduk's status in his father's absence. Omissions? and reigned until 539 b.c. It is related by the people who inhabited this city, that, by reason of its great extent, when they who were at the extremities were taken, those of the Babylonians who inhabited the centre knew nothing of the capture (for it happened to be a festival); but they were dancing at the time, and enjoying themselves, till they received certain information of the truth. The long chapter devoted to this incident which brought the Babylonian Empire to its close is undoubtedly recorded in the Word of God not only for its historic fulfillment of the prophecies relative to the Babylonian Empire but also as an illustration of divine dealing with a wicked world. MENE could be considered equivalent to the maneh of Ezekiel 45:12; Ezra 2:69. Daniel 6:16, Darius hurries to the lions den the following day to see what happened to Daniel and learns to his astonishment that Daniel is unharmed. In the same hour came forth fingers of a mans hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the kings palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Daniel, p. 210; and George A. Barton, Archaeology and the Bible, p. 481 ff. Herodotus's description of Nitocris contains a wealth of legendary material that makes it difficult to determine whether he uses the name to refer to Nabonidus's wife or mother, but William H. Shea proposed in 1982 that Nitocris may tentatively be identified as the name of Nabonidus's wife and Belshazzar's mother. D. N. Freedman (Prayer of Nabonidus, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 145 [1957]: 32) identifies the three kings as Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus and Belshazzar. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. When Daniel was brought before the king, he addressed a natural question to reassure himself of the identity of Daniel. He was selected for special service in Babylon, and was given three years of training in the best of Babylon's schools. [20], By examining surviving documents from Belshazzar's time as crown prince, it appears that the estates of Neriglissar's family were confiscated after Labashi-Marduk's death and that they were claimed and taken over by Belshazzar. the second year of Darius the King King of what, exactly ? Daniel read the writing and Belshazzar made him the third ruler in the kingdom. At his death his son Laborosoarchod, who was only a child, reigned for nine months until a conspiracy resulted in his being beaten to death. In spite of the problem in the word, it is probable that the offer of honor was that of being the third ruler. Babylonian chronicles refer to the crown prince being stationed at home in Babylonia with "his army". [8] The later authors of the Talmud and the Midrash emphasize the tyrannous oppression of his Jewish subjects, with several passages in the Prophets interpreted as referring to him and his predecessors. Ezra 1:1-4. Nabonidus was absent from Babylon from 553 BC to 543 or 542 BC, in self-imposed "exile" at Tayma in Arabia, for unknown reasons. (Daniel 5) and predicted the assassination of the corrupt King Belshazzar (her grandfather) by Medean spies. So great was his genius that Nebuchadnezzar had made him master or chief of his wise men, which in itself was a remarkable position for one who was not a Chaldean; and this honor placed upon him testified to the confidence of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniels abilities. 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. However, the narration here must be considered in the form of a condensation; and probably Daniel addressed the king in a formal way. Norman Porteous, Daniel: A Commentary, p. 76. The storehouses of Babylon were still abundant with food and wine, and there is evidence that there was plenty of both at this feast. Was Nebuchadnezzar a believer? 538), using the sacred vessels of the temple, which Nebuchadnezzer had brought from Jerusalem. [25] October 543 BC is the return date most supported by surviving Babylonian documentation. This article is about the Babylonian prince. When Nebuchadnezzar's son King Belshazzar uses the vessels from the Jewish temple for his feast, a hand appears and writes a mysterious . During his coregency Belshazzar administered the government, his own estates, and those of his father, though, according to the Book of Daniel, famine and economic setbacks occurred late in his rule. Under these circumstances, Belshazzar would indeed be king of Babylon in the absence of his father. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. If she were the wife of Nabonidus who was in captivity she probably would not have desired to come alone. Much speculation has arisen concerning the expression that he offered them the position of being the third ruler in the kingdom. There is some question as to whether the Aramaic indicates specifically the third ruler. The ordinal numeral would be tlitay (as in Dan 2:39) whereas the Aramaic here is actually talti. This articleincorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Singer, Isidore; etal., eds. Critics of the authenticity and historicity of Daniel accordingly were free to question whether any such person as Belshazzar existed. Her address is courteous, O king, live for ever, but directly to the point. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. When Nebuchadnezzar died, Daniel was one of the most powerful men in Babylon and doubtless had his own house and was well provisioned for retirement. What Daniel is saying is that he will give an unprejudiced interpretation with no attempt to seek favor from the king. The command given to Abraham to cut in pieces three heifers (Genesis 15:9) as a part of the covenant established between him and his God was thus elucidated as symbolizing Babylonia, which gave rise to three kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Amel-Marduk, and Belshazzar, whose doom is prefigured by this act of "cutting to pieces" (Midrash Genesis Rabbah xliv.). More specifically of the invasion of the Medes, Isaiah writes, Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media (Is 21:2), and continues, after describing their dismay, My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me. 184-85. The next four years Neriglisar occupied the throne. Archeological research is complicated by a change in the course of the Euphrates River and a higher water level, but more than 10,000 inscribed texts have been discovered. The expression drunk wine before the thousand indicates that Belshazzar was probably on a platform at a higher level than other guests and led them in drinking toasts to their deities. What do I do about calling a priest father at my Catholic University? Only Babylon with its massive walls and fortifications remained intact. Corrections? Daniel 6:21-22, Darius orders Daniel to be freed out of the lions den and have the administrators thrown in instead, along with their wives and children. Daniel 3:13-15, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego continue to refuse to worship Nebuchadnezzars golden statue. 5:10-12 Now the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house: and the queen spake and said, O king live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed. Daniel (Dn'il, or Danel) is also the name of a figure in the Aqhat legend from Ugarit. Drinking bouts such as characterized Babylon were also common among other peoples, such as the Persians. . and the fall of Babylon 539 B.C. Critics, having to recede from their former position that no such person existed, have since centered their attack on the fact that the word king does not occur in connection with Belshazzar on any extant Babylonian records.250 The establishment of Nabonidus as the father of Belshazzar, or at least his stepfather, nullifies most of the critical objections, although Rowley in an extensive discussion maintains stoutly that to call Belshazzar a king must still be pronounced a grave historical error.251, Since Rowley, however, even liberal scholars have tended to accept the explanation that Belshazzar acted as a regent under his father, Nabonidus. 5:17-23 Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. He knew for instance that Daniel was of the captivity of Judah and that he was one of the captives which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out of Jerusalem. Daniel 5:18-21 . See also Keil, p. 179, citing Athenaeus, as does Young, p. 118. Still, orders by Nabonidus superseded orders by Belshazzar. [20] This is supported by documents describing business transactions of Belshazzar mentioning the same locations, and even the same household and servants, as similar earlier documents of Neriglissar. Under the stimulus of wine, the thought occurred to Belshazzar to bring in the gold and silver vessels taken from the temple in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar almost seventy years before. "That two deserters, Gadatas and Gobryas, having assisted some of the Persian army to kill the guards, and seize upon . He praises God, and after seven months, his sanity is restored. 5:29-31 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. [42], It is possible that a noteworthy return to orthodox Babylonian religion, following early attempts by Nabonidus to exalt the moon god Sn over the traditional Babylonian supreme deity Marduk, can be attributed to Belshazzar. J. That would make him about 85 to ninety years old at his death. This, no doubt, prepared the way for the co-regency under Nabonidus which probably began 553 B.C., supporting Daniel 5. His grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken these cups from the Temple in Jerusalem. To be clothed in scarlet and to wear a chain of gold about the neck were special tokens of the kings favor and certainly would have been coveted by any of the wise men. If, however, the Babylonians had been aware of it beforehand, or had known what Cyrus was about, they would not have suffered the Persians to enter the city, but would have utterly destroyed them; for, having shut all the little gates that lead to the river, and mounting the walls that extend along the banks of the river, they would have caught them as in a net; whereas the Persians came upon them by surprise. He appears on the Bible Timeline Poster right before the fall of Babylon. Because of the variety of words that could be identified merely by the consonants, another suggestion has been made. As Nabonidus was relatively old at the time, his reign could be expected to be brief and transitional, meaning that Belshazzar could expect to inherit the throne within a few years.[23].
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