Diving into Daniel - Daniel Interprets the Words on the Wall
Daniel 5:13-31 - Are you ready today to meet the Lord? The handwriting may already be on the wall!
“Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king spoke and said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah? Now I have heard about you that a spirit of the gods is in you, and that illumination, insight and extraordinary wisdom have been found in you. Just now the wise men and the conjurers were brought in before me that they might read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me, but they could not declare the interpretation of the message. But I personally have heard about you, that you are able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems. Now if you are able to read the inscription and make its interpretation known to me, you will be clothed with purple and wear a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.”
Then Daniel answered and said before the king, “Keep your gifts for yourself or give your rewards to someone else; however, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him. O king, the Most High God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father. 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. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken away from him. He was also driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like that of beasts, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind and that He sets over it whomever He wishes.
Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this, but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear or understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and all your ways, you have not glorified. Then the hand was sent from Him and this inscription was written out.
“Now this is the inscription that was written out: ‘MENĒ, MENĒ, TEKĒL, UPHARSIN.’ This is the interpretation of the message:
‘MENĒ’—God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.
‘TEKĒL’—you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.
‘PERĒS’—your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”
Then Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a necklace of gold around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as the third ruler in the kingdom. That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.”
Daniel 5:13-31 NASB1995
Daniel appears before the king. Belshazzar greets him in a flattering manner, that he had “heard” that the spirit of the gods was in Daniel, and that illumination, insight and extraordinary wisdom had been found in him. A short time before this, he probably had no idea about Daniel’s success or even knew the man existed until the Queen told him. The king tells Daniel that if he is successful in interpreting the words on the wall, then Daniel will be made the third ruler of the kingdom, clothed in purple and with a gold necklace.
Daniel is not quite as circumspect in his language with Belshazzar as he was with Nebuchadnezzar. He tells the king to keep the gifts and give them to someone else. He does agree to read the inscription and make the interpretation known to the king. Daniel then tells Belshazzar about the experience of Nebuchadnezzar and how that king recognized the most high God. Belshazzar, on the other hand, has not humbled himself but has exalted himself against the Lord of Heaven. He and his party crowd have committed sacrilege using the vessels from the temple while praying to false gods that cannot see, hear or understand them. Belshazzar has certainly not glorified the God who holds his life breath and ways. Of course God is (or has sent) the hand behind the message.
Enduring Word has good commentary on this lecture that Daniel delivers:
a. Let your gifts be for yourself: Remember that Daniel was troubled when he had to give Nebuchadnezzar bad news (Daniel 4:19). This wasn’t the case here. Daniel was not impressed with this successor of Nebuchadnezzar.
b. You his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this: Daniel was so harsh because Belshazzar should have known better. Even if he was not raised in a godly home, Romans 1 reminds us that all men know of God through creation. Belshazzar should have known even more through God’s dealings with and through Daniel. We are all responsible to honor God according to what revelation we have.
c. The God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified: It would be easy for Belshazzar to think that he never did anything against the God of Israel – at least nothing too bad. Yet at the very least, he had not glorified the true God, and every creature is obligated to give glory to their Creator.
i. The breath of the creature should praise the Creator, but Belshazzar blasphemed God with his breath. The ways of the creature should glorify the Creator, but Belshazzar used his ways to mock and offend God. Every creature owes something to the Creator.
ii. “If God held Belshazzar responsible, my friend, for the ray of light which shone across his pathway, what will He say to men living in the blaze of light which illuminates the world today? Every unconverted man in this country has more light than Belshazzar had.” (Louis Talbot)
Daniel explains the words on the wall (MENĒ, MENĒ, TEKĒL, UPHARSIN):
‘MENĒ’—God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.
‘TEKĒL’—you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.
‘PERĒS’—your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”
This seems pretty straightforward, but here is additional commentary from Enduring Word that also examines the fall of Babylon:
a. MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of each word: “It should be observed, that each word stands for a short sentence; mene signifies NUMERATION; tekel, WEIGHING; and peres, DIVISION.” (Adam Clarke)
· God had Belshazzar’s number, and it fell short.
· God weighed Belshazzar, and he came up light.
· God would therefore divide Belshazzar’s kingdom to the Medes and the Persians.
b. Weighed in the balances, and found wanting: A mighty army and brilliant tactics overcame the Babylonian Empire, yet it still fell from within. The armies of the Medes and Persians could only conquer because Belshazzar and his kingdom were found lacking in spiritual and moral values.
c. Given to the Medes and Persians: The ancient Greek historian Herodotus relates that the Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylon by diverting the flow of the Euphrates into a nearby swamp. This lowered the level of the river so his troops marched through the water and under the river-gates. They still would not have been able to enter had not the bronze gates of the inner walls been left inexplicably unlocked. This was exactly what God predicted in Isaiah 44:28-45:7 and Jeremiah 51:57-58. God opened the gates of the city of Babylon for Cyrus, and put it in writing 200 years before it happened.
i. “In October 539 BC, Cyrus advanced into lower Mesopotamia and, leaving Babylon till last, conquered and occupied the surrounding territory. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, Nabonidus of Babylon deserted his city, leaving it in the charge of his son Belshazzar… the taking of Babylon was as bloodless and effortless as Daniel 5 implies.” (J. Allen Moyter, in his commentary on Isaiah)
ii. The fall of mystery Babylon will be like the fall of real Babylon – sudden, sure, and in the midst of her worst blasphemies. “Empires do not stand by human might, man-made machines and missiles. There is not a wall high enough nor thick enough to prevent a nation from falling when God pronounces that nation’s doom.” (Lehman Strauss)
That last bullet is certainly challenging. The might of any nation, including the United States, is nothing before the power of God. Ray Pritchard is quoted on Precept Austin saying a similar thing:
Daniel 5 is in the Bible for a very particular reason—so that we will know that what happened to Babylon may also happen to us. Search through the rubble of history. See the great nations come and go: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome. And in the last hundred years the [Soviet] Communist empire and the Third Reich of Hitler have both come and gone.
The tendency of every great nation is the same:
To begin to believe that we will always be a superpower, to slowly push God out of the picture, to take him out of public life, to forbid the mention of his name, to ridicule those who still believe in him, to promote those who exalt man and down play God, to chafe at the absolutes, to rewrite the rule book, and to live by our own set of rules. Over time we take God for granted, turn to our own idols of technology, and begin to worship the things we make with our own hands.
In the end God judges that nation and it is no longer great. And note this biblical fact. Judgment often comes at the hands of another nation God raises up for that very purpose. (God’s Graffiti - January 2000)
This seems even more relevant 25 years later. We are glued to the glowing screens of nonsense (present blog excluded!) on our gizmos and even many churches in our land have turned their backs on God’s commands, substituting social justice and acceptance of sin in place of eternal precepts.
This chapter ends first with Daniel receiving the purple robe and declaring he was third in authority (he doesn’t turn it down even though he said give it to someone else), then Belshazzar is killed that very night by the invaders and Darius the Mede receives the kingdom. How is Darius related to Cyrus? Let’s see what Gotquestions.org has to say bout Darius:
There are three references to rulers named Darius in the Bible. The first, chronologically, occurs in the book of Daniel, where the ruler is called Darius the Mede (Daniel 6:1). This Darius ruled for only two years (538–536 BC) and is best known as the ruler who promoted Daniel to a high position in the kingdom and then cast him into the lions’ den, much against his better judgment. When he saw that Daniel was unhurt by the lions, Darius decreed that “people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end” (Daniel 6:1–26). It is possible that Daniel used the word Darius (which means “lord”) as a title for the ruler in Babylon, rather than a proper name. Daniel 6:28 refers to “the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian,” showing that Darius and Cyrus ruled concurrently. This has caused Bible scholars to posit that Darius was appointed viceroy over Babylon by his nephew, King Cyrus.
Question answered!
The death of Belshazzar on the very night that he hosted a huge party where the “nobles” used forbidden drinking vessels that was then so rudely interrupted by the terrifying spectral hand writing on the wall is sobering, indeed. Are you ready to meet the Lord if your death happened tonight? This is from the same sermon by Ray Pritchard quoted in Precept Austin:
Sinners like to believe that God will never punish them, or if punishment is coming, it is so far off in the distant future that they have plenty of time to repent and be ready to meet the Lord (cp Ec 8:11). This is a dangerous and even deadly attitude. God is not obligated to continually send his Spirit to convict us of our sin. The time may come when God says, “You have crossed the line,” and the Holy Spirit no longer works in a person’s heart. No one knows when that time is coming, and no one but God knows when the line has been crossed. But of this much we may be sure. The opportunity to get right with God ends with our death. After we die, there is only the judgment to come (He 9:27-note). It is foolish to presume upon the grace of God. He owes you nothing at all. If you reject his offer of salvation, there remains no other sacrifice for sin (He 10:26-note). If you turn away from Jesus, or if you put off trusting Him, where else will you go to have your sins forgiven? Those who take God’s grace for granted will end up eternally disappointed. (God’s Graffiti - January 2000)
My next devotional examines Daniel 6:1-15 - Daniel serves Darius but the Satraps want to trap Daniel.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I pray that I am always in a state of readiness and am not caught off-guard by coming up short in my journey to eternal life with You. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
Precept Austin was accessed on 4/12/2025 to review commentary for Daniel 5:13-31.
Gotquestions.org was accessed on 4/12/2025 to answer the question, Who was Darius in the Bible?