Search The Scriptures —Study 6 — Daniel 5

Study 6 From the Book of  Daniel is:  Daniel 5

Babylon fell in 539 BC, twenty-three years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar. A quarter of a century, therefore, has elapsed since the events of chapter 4.

      1-     What four accusations did Daniel bring against Belshazzar? In what two ways was Belshazzar’s sin aggravated and made more heinous?

       2-     Consider the judgment pronounced upon Belshazzar as symbolizing the divine judgment upon all ungodliness, whether in national or individual life. See verses 26 – 28, and cf. Pr. 15:3, 9; Ec. 8:11-13.

Notes

       1-     The identity of Belshazzar was for long unknown, but he is now known to have been the eldest son of King Nabonidus (556-59), and to have shared the duties of the throne with his father. While Nabonidus was a way from Babylon, his son had supreme authority there.

       2-     Verse 10, ‘The queen’: probably the queen-mother, window of Nebuchadnezzar.

       3-     Verses 25-28. The words represent three weights or coins, viz mina, shekel, and peres or half-mina. But the interpretation conceals numerous plays on words, for the verbal roots mean ‘to number to weight and to divide’. In the case of ‘peres’, ‘to divide’, a further similarity to the word for Persian has been used.

LINKTO THE VERSES LISTED