Belshazzar’s Feast and the Writing on the Wall
Overview
- Testament: Old
- Book: Daniel
- Chapters: Daniel 5:1-31
- Summary: Belshazzar, king of Babylon, holds a great feast at which he commands that the sacred gold and silver vessels plundered from the temple at Jerusalem be brought out for his lords and their wives to drink from, praising the gods of gold and silver. In the midst of the revelry, the fingers of a man’s hand appear and write four words on the plaster of the wall: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. None of the wise men of The King’s Court can interpret the writing until the queen mother recalls Daniel, who reads the verdict: the kingdom is numbered and finished, the king is weighed and found wanting, and the realm is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. That very night Belshazzar is slain.
Significance
Belshazzar’s profanation of the temple vessels represents the climax of Babylonian impiety toward the God of Israel, making his sudden destruction a direct act of divine judgment. The episode reinforces a central theological thread of Daniel—that earthly rulers hold their power only on loan from the God of heaven, and that pride and sacrilege carry swift consequences. The fall of Babylon in a single night also serves as a historical and typological marker: the era of Babylonian dominance ends and the succession of world empires foretold in Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream continues its course.
Key Verses
“MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.” — Daniel 5:26 (KJV)
“TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” — Daniel 5:27 (KJV)
“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.” — Daniel 5:30 (KJV)
Cross-References
- Daniel — the only man able to interpret the divine writing on the wall
- The King’s Court — the setting of the feast and the assembled wise men
- Babylon — the empire whose doom is pronounced in the interpretation
- Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream — the earlier vision of successive empires now moving toward fulfillment