The Writing on the Wall (Part 2)

We're going to continue what we started last week, so we're in Daniel chapter 5.

! We've been kind of working our way through this, for me personally, is one of my favorite stories, and they are famous stories and popular stories, and maybe this one is not as maybe famous or popular as some of the others, but it is so interesting to me and teaches so much, and so we're working our way through that. We've got a little ways in our notes, and so let me pick up where we left off. In our outline for this chapter, we are getting ready to look at Roman numeral number 5, the king's dreadful revelation. The king's dreadful revelation. Up until now, we haven't had any mention of Daniel. Daniel hasn't been a part of the story. I did mention, you remember last week, that when we get to chapter 5, verse 1, we've gone way ahead in time, and Nebuchadnezzar is now dead. There have been a number of kings that have sat on the throne of Babylon since Nebuchadnezzar, and now we have really two kings that are sitting on the throne, and one of them is Belshazzar. So it's kind of a co-regency at this time. So we have a co-regency. Belshazzar, the son, is also king, and his kind of area responsibility in the kingdom is primarily the capital city, Babylon itself, great Babylon.

The king had a feast, put on this huge banquet. May have been several thousand people, maybe as many as 10,000 people. He had all of his lords there, and all of their wives and concubines and servants, and the king's wives and concubines, and probably a contingent of soldiers there to protect the people during this banquet, and most certainly would have, because while the banquet's going on, the city is surrounded by the Persian army. When we get to the end of this chapter, we're going to, in just a few words, the Bible is going to let us know that that Persian army that had surrounded the city has indeed invaded the city, put Belshazzar to death, and that brings an end to the Babylonian empire. Big banquet, lots of wine and drunkenness, and a lot of sacrilege going on, because remember, Belshazzar brings out the golden vessels that were taken as booty from the sacking of the temple in

Jerusalem, the sacking of it by Nebuchadnezzar, his grandfather. Those were kept in the treasury of Nebuchadnezzar, the king's treasury, and so Belshazzar thought it'd be a great idea to bring those things out, and let's just drink wine out of them, and so it's while they're just having a great old time that at least Belshazzar sees, and it could be that everyone could see this, though it's not really clear in scripture, suddenly there's a finger, finger of a man, a man's hand, and the finger writes words on the wall, and so there's the writing on the wall, and what does it mean, and so that brings us to where we have come in our study, the king's dreadful revelation. Here is then where Daniel comes into the story. I guess, you know, he's been kind of waiting out there in the wings, so to speak.

I don't know where Daniel was at this time. He certainly was not among the wise men, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, that whole group of supposedly wise counselors. He wasn't among that group of people that were summoned by Belshazzar to try to figure all this out, and we really don't know if at this time he held any kind of leadership in Babylon. Time has elapsed. Remember I mentioned that last week, Daniel's now a pretty old fellow, probably in his middle to upper 80s, and so as we don't know, he probably was in retirement. Perhaps his place of high honor that he once had given to him by Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps that honor and authority in the kingdom ended after Nebuchadnezzar died.

We don't really know, or perhaps his age was a factor, since again he was likely in his upper 80s. So we don't know if he fell out of favor with the current leadership of Babylon, but Daniel's not here, and now they're going to get Daniel here. When we look at the text, let's notice just several things, in fact a lot of things, about Daniel's part in the story. First of all, or A on your outline, Daniel's commendation. Daniel's commendation, and his commendation comes from a very unlikely source.

The Bible says in verse 10, the queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came to the banquet hall. All right, so the queen, she heard all the commotion. She's not in the banquet, not part of the banquet. She hears the commotion, hears, I guess, maybe she's out in the wings somewhere, hears even what is being said, you know, the screech of Belshazzar when he sees this sight of a man's hand riding on the wall, and whatever. Possibly even hears about him calling for the wise men to come, and so she's kind of been eavesdropping on all of this, I guess.

Now, the verse does not name the queen, doesn't identify her, provide any explicit information about her identity, and so there are three possibilities as to the identity of this queen, and these are just logical. First one, I guess the most obvious possibility or guess would have been Belshazzar's wife, right? I mean, he's king, his wife would be queen, and so when it says the queen came into the banquet hall, you know, maybe our first guess would be, well, this is, this is, you know, Belshazzar's wife. Now, the problem is, and you can just jot this down if you want to, the problem with that is, well, a number of things, a couple of things at least. The text says that the queen came to the banquet, suggests that she wasn't in the banquet, and she came into the banquet, but according to verses 2 and 3, and you can look back at that if you have your Bibles open, according to verses 2 and 3, the king's wives, plural, were already present at the banquet, and that would have included, of course, the, I guess we could call the favorite wife, you know, these kings had many, many wives, but there were still only one queen. They didn't have many queens, just one, so there's a favorite, or the first wife, or whatever term was used, and so the Bible says in those verses that his wives and concubines were at the banquet, and yet the queen's not there.

I don't think it could be his wife. It's unlikely that if Belshazzar was ignorant of Daniel, and that's obvious from verse 13, we'll get to that, I mean, he doesn't even know him. If he was ignorant of him, then the same would have been true of his wife, obviously, which would contradict verses 11 and 12, because we're going to see that this queen knows all about Daniel, knows all about his history, and all the great things he had done in history for Nebuchadnezzar. I don't think it's even possible that it could be Belshazzar's wife. The second possibility, I mean, what would it be? His mother.

Belshazzar's mother, that's a possibility, of course. She would have been called queen, too, for a couple of reasons. She is the wife of the co-king, her father. He's king, his wife would be queen, all right? So it could be the mother of Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar. Talked about her last time, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. There's a problem with that. First of all, Belshazzar was co-regent with his father, Nabonidus, or there's his name. That's because I've got it in the notes here. I can read in there.

Nabonidus, all right, so Belshazzar's co-regent, co-king with his father, who, according to historians, ruled, he ruled from Haran. Haran, a principal city located in the north, the Assyrian kind of territory of Babylonia. Remember, they conquered the Assyrians, and Nabonidus was an Assyrian, came from Assyria, and his mother was Assyrian. And so, since Nabonidus is ruling from Haran, it seems reasonable that his wife would be there with him. So it's probably not Belshazzar's mother. And it couldn't be his mother also, because, again, according to verses 11 and 12, the queen in question has intimate knowledge of Daniel and his famous exploits during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. And I don't think that his mother would have the same kind of knowledge of it.

All right, so that leads us to the third possibility, and it would be Belshazzar's grandmother. I bet you couldn't guess that was going to be the third possibility. Grandmother, the wife of Nebuchadnezzar. Now, I would say to you that this seems to be the best choice for the identity of the queen in verse 10 for a number of reasons. She would still bear the title of queen, all right, even though she's the grandmother. She was the mother of Nebuchadnezzar. She would continue to have that title.

She would be queen. We might even call her queen mother. Or the other term that's used is dowager queen, which is another way of saying grandmother of queen. All right, and also, for a second reason why I think this would be the right one here, as again, I've already said, the knowledge of Daniel revealed in verses 11 and 12. And what knowledge would that be? Well, firsthand knowledge of his miracles.

Nebuchadnezzar's appointing him as chief of the wise men. She mentions that. And also, even mentioning his original Hebrew name, which would have been long forgotten by now. Belteshazzar. So, she has knowledge of those things about Daniel. And that knowledge about Daniel was far more intimate and mature, far more intimate and mature than what we might expect in the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, who would have been very young at the time. All right, so I think it just points to the grandmother, the mother of the late, late king, Nebuchadnezzar. You say, well, how could she still be alive? Well, he probably married pretty young. Or he married young, but married a very young woman. All right, so what did the queen mother say to her grandson? First of all, she spoke words of loyal devotion.

I mean, this would be the right way to address the king, even though the king is your grandson. She spoke as a loyal subject of the king. What did she say? Verse 10, O king, live forever. And so she approached him with words of respect, loyal devotion to Belshazzar as king. Second, she spoke words of loving compassion. Loving compassion. She spoke as a loving grandmother. All right, so you have kind of two, she has two roles. She's a subject of the kingdom and a subject of the king. And so she uses the appropriate address for him, even though she is his grandmother. But she's not just a subject. She's more than that. She's a grandmother and she loves her son and has compassion for her son, wants to help her son best she can. And it's even quite possible that, you know, Nebuchadnezzar became a worshiper of Yahweh God. Not that necessarily anything said in the text suggests that she was also a worshiper of God, but she had a great respect for Yahweh God. And so she wants to help her son out. She said in verse 10, do not let your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countenance change. And she'd observe this. And so she's very concerned for him. Third, she spoke words of learned instruction. Learned instruction, which she shared with him, was exactly what he needed.

Because she had learned this. She knew this. She understood this. Verse 11, there is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy God. And here's where you have little variance with some of the other versions. In fact, really, New King James diverges from all the other popular versions.

Even the King James translates it spirit of the holy gods, plural. So she's saying there's a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. New King James translates it spirit, capital S, of the holy God. Now, which is it? I don't know. But I guess we could go with the majority.

Majority of scholars who translate this spirit, small s, of the holy gods, plural. All right. So there's a man like this in the kingdom. And in the days of your father, now that's not his immediate father. Remember, I talked about this last week. The Aramaic has no word for grandmother. There is no word for grandmother or grandfather. And so, you know, when it refers to father, it referred to father. It may be several generations back. Sometimes it just refers to ancestor. Not even necessarily blood relative. Your fathers, you know, those who came before you. But in this case, it is referring to Nebuchadnezzar, of course, as the grandfather of Belshazzar. All right. So in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods were found in him. And by the way, now I remember what I, something I read when it, when she said, like the wisdom of the gods, the text is very clear. The language very clear. It's plural gods. And so up further up or backing up to where she says spirit of the holy gods. It's unclear there, whether it's plural or singular. In fact, I think there were some manuscripts that have it singular. Some that have more, more of them have it as plural, but it's difficult to decipher. And so they are then translated first part of that based upon the plural gods that she uses a little bit later in the text. All right. So she said, like the wisdom of the gods were found in him and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father and king made him chief of magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers, in as much as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called and he will give the interpretation. So this is, this is, this is her instruction to her grandson. He's king. She cares about him, concerned about him, and she knows that he can't get the answer from any of his wise men. She remembers that happening with her father,

Nebuchadnezzar. And she was there when Daniel interpreted that very first dream and, and all that. So she had intimate knowledge of all of this. And so based upon that knowledge, she gives this instruction to her grandson.

All right. So now we're ready for B, Daniel's reputation. Daniel's reputation. And, uh, verse 13, then Daniel was brought in before the king. All right. So Belteshazzar listened to his grandmother and, uh, took, took, took, took it as, uh, uh, important and worthwhile. And so he has Daniel brought. I mean, you know, he wants to find out what, what's going on. And so the king spoke and said to Daniel, are you that Daniel who is one of the captives from Judah? I think I inserted there in parentheses in your notes as well, a not so subtle reminder of his inferior position. That's the first thing he identifies him as. He was his slave. But basically that's what he's saying. You're one of the slaves, you know, one of the captured, uh, captured young men, uh, from Judah whom my father, again, literally grandfather brought out of Jewry, out of Judea or Judah. I have heard of you. Now, where had he heard of him? Well, from his grandmother. And it could be that he also had others who, uh, uh, agreed with the grandmother or said, yeah, oh yeah, I, uh, King, I remember this Daniel too. And so he has a reputation, uh, not only among the, uh, with his grandmother, but very likely among all the people, at least those who were alive back in the day. I have heard of you. I know your reputation that the spirit of God, or again, the spirit of the gods depends on which version you look at is in you and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. This is Daniel's reputation. Now, the wise men, the astrologers have been brought in before me that they should read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not give the interpretation of the thing. And I have heard of you. There's mentioned twice. I have heard of you that you can give interpretations and explain enigmas. All right. So Daniel's reputation. Next we have

Daniel's stipulation. There's a condition here, stipulation that the king makes with Daniel. And it's easy to see verse 16. Now, if you can read the writing, all right, if you can, if you can read it, not only read it, but make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. All right. Remember that was the promise that Belshazzar gave all the other wise men earlier. They couldn't come up with it. And I've explained this last week, but I will give it to you again in your notes. To be clothed with purple signified royalty.

That would be royalty. So here's the promise. You can read it and interpret the meaning of it. Then you will become, be given a place of royalty in the kingdom. To have a chain of gold that was the visible kind of badge or insignia of authority, royal authority. So royalty, authority, and then to be the third ruler of the kingdom, that signified co-regency, co-regency. So we have Nabonidus. Nabonidus is first, then Belshazzar, his son, is the second king and Daniel will be the third. So this is a big promise, big reward for interpreting, you know, the writing on the wall. Not just to be able to read it, but also to give the meaning of it, the sense of it, of the significance of it. All right. So I think you should notice that unlike Daniel's first experience with Belshazzar's grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, there's nothing said about what would happen if he couldn't read it. You know, that's not added this time. So that's, that's a good thing. Though Daniel wasn't worried, I don't think. All right. Next, then Daniel's indignation. He's indignant about something. Verse 17, then Daniel answered and said before the king, let your gifts be for yourself. That is, you can just keep all that. I want that.

Give your rewards to another. Yet I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. So Daniel, his indignation was that the king thought that God's services, God's blessing could be somehow bought. And this isn't going to be Daniel, Daniel's resources. It's going to be God speaking through Daniel. And what the king promised was in effect a payment for, for God to work a blessing. And so, and I think he also did not want to be obligated to Belshazzar to do, you know, that, that might skew his interpretation. And especially when he learns, you know, what the thing means that he's going to be destroyed. The kingdom is going to come to an end. And so what good is the promise? And so maybe he might just change that a little bit. You know, I don't know.

That leads us then to E on your outline, Daniel's admonition, admonition. He admonishes Belshazzar.

Admonishes him by reminding him of his grandfather's reign over the great, over great Babylon. He reminds him of what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. This is an admonition, he's admonishing Belshazzar.

Not only just reminding him of something, but using it as, as a way to admonish him. Now, perhaps Belshazzar did not know about what happened to his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar. Maybe he didn't know about it. Maybe this was something only revealed to a few, and maybe it was stricken from all the history books if it was in there. Because usually these, in ancient times, and even in our day, there are revisionists of history. You know, they want to present, you know, if you're in power, then you want to make sure the history is written favorably about you.

And so it could be that Belshazzar didn't know what had happened to Nebuchadnezzar. Perhaps he did know, but he had the wrong interpretation of it. Maybe he just thought, well, you know, my grandfather just went crazy for a while, you know, and never did see it as God's judgment upon his life. All right, so Daniel then begins with the source of Nebuchadnezzar. Really, we should say the source of his power, the source of his greatness. Verse 18, O king, the most high God, gave Nebuchadnezzar, your father, a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. It was God who did all that. There would be no debate in anybody's mind about the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar.

Belshazzar would have never entertained the thought that he was greater than his grandfather, than any king in Babylon. They would all have looked to Nebuchadnezzar as the greatest of the kings of their empire. And so there'd be no debate about that. What they would not know, but should know, is the source of that greatness was God, God the most high. And Nebuchadnezzar learned that, and that's kind of the flow of the logic of Daniel as we move along here, because then we need to consider, he reminded him of the success of Nebuchadnezzar.

Verse 19, and because of the majesty that he gave him, who gave him? God gave him. Because of that, all people's nations and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed. Whomever he wished, he kept alive. Whomever he wished, he set up. And whomever he wished, he put down. All right? So the success of Nebuchadnezzar, his great power, his great authority to do whatever he desired, whatever he wished, that power, that success as king of Babylon was given to him by God, granted him by God. And so then third, the sin of Nebuchadnezzar.

Verse 20, but when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride. All right? So it's just, it's his sin. He put himself above the one true God, thought himself to be greater than God, took all the credit for the greatness of his kingdom. He was filled with pride. And so we know, we already know the story, we've studied the story about Nebuchadnezzar. So here's Daniel, you know, laying this out for Belshazzar. It's part of him admonishing him by bringing his grandfather into his mind and all that happened to him. And so that leads us to the suffering of Nebuchadnezzar.

And he suffered several things. In fact, he alludes to three things. He suffered the loss of his kingdom. He suffered the loss of his kingdom. That's what verse 20 says. He was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. That is his glory, rightful glory, as king of Babylon.

So he lost his kingdom. He suffered also the loss of his own kind, mankind. Verse 20 and 21, then he was driven from the sons of men. I mean, he was driven away from his kind, humankind. And then he suffered the loss of his mind, his knowledge. I use the word knowledge just to keep the alliteration, but he just lost his mind. Verse 21b, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven. So you just, you remember this when we studied this passage. And then we have the submission of Nebuchadnezzar.

So this is part of the story. It's kind of summation of the story of Nebuchadnezzar, who was given greatness by God, and then he became prideful about it, and so God judged him. And then God brought him to a place of submission, submission to him. Verse 21, till he knew that the most high God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over whomever he chooses.

So Nebuchadnezzar learned that, and he was restored to his kingdom. All right, so you see what Daniel was doing here. He is admonishing Belshazzar with the history, by using the history of his famous grandfather. And so that leads next to Daniel's condemnation. His condemnation, really it's God's condemnation, but Daniel is God's mouthpiece here. And basically, I guess we could say, thinking about Nebuchadnezzar's great pride and his great fall, Belshazzar became the same way.

The apple didn't fall far from the tree. And so we have, first of all, the pride of Belshazzar. This is Daniel's condemnation. He's condemning him for his pride. Rather, God is condemning him.

Verse 22, but you his son, really grandson, but you understand, you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart. Although you knew all this. So I think it's clear here that he did know about what had happened to his grandfather. I think he knew it, but he didn't understand that it was the hand of God. Although you knew this, and you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven, which is exactly what Nebuchadnezzar did. So the pride of Belshazzar, and then the profanity of Belshazzar.

And when I use the word profane, I'm not talking about using dirty words. He became profane. He did profane acts, and we know what that is, and Daniel tells us. Verse 23, they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them.

This is to profane these sacred instruments that were part of the worship of Yahweh, part of what was in the temple. This is what Belshazzar did. So you did the pride, the profanity, and then the praise of Belshazzar, which was obviously a misguided praise. Verse 23, and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know. I love that. I mean, obviously, we're talking about idols. He wasn't worshiping, praising or worshiping metals, you know, like we might praise money and worship money, although we do. But he's just describing these idols that are made of silver and gold and bronze and iron and wood and stone. They can't see anything, they can't hear anything, they can't know anything. They're just, they're just, they're nothing. And the God who holds your breath in his very hands and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. This is a profound verse of scripture. I mean, put that in comparison. You've worshiped these gods that are made out of gold and all these precious metals and even some of them wood. And you worship them and they can't even do anything, can't see anything, they don't know anything, they don't hear anything, they don't hear your prayers. And yet the God who holds your breath in his hand, your very life in his hand, and owns all your ways. You know, the things of your life, the way of your life, all the things that happen in your life. He has in his hand all those things. You've not glorified him. Tremendous condemnation of

Belshazzar. And so that leads us to Daniel's revelation. Daniel's revelation, and we get to the writing on the wall. First, we have Daniel, Daniel read or he revealed the inscription. Now, say it that way. I'll explain that here in a minute, but he read the inscription or he revealed the inscription.

Verse 24, verses 24 and 25, then the fingers of the hand were sent from him, from God, and his writing was written. And this is the inscription that was written. Mene, mene, tekel, ufarsin. All right, that's what was written. All right, so he read it or he revealed it. I mean, either he stood there and looked at the wall and he read those words, or he revealed what was written on the wall. I say it that way because he either read the inscription because it still appeared there on the wall behind Belshazzar's throne.

The words were in Aramaic. He could have read them. Or he revealed it because by the time Daniel was summoned, the writing was already gone. It had disappeared. Or it may have only appeared to Belshazzar. So we have to consider that possibility. Could be that only Belshazzar saw those words.

Verse 5 says that the king saw. Verse 6 says that the king's countenance was changed. His thoughts were troubled. His knees knocked. Doesn't speak of anybody else in the room but the king. Verse 8 says that the wise men could not read the writing. Or make known to the king its interpretation. So either it was gobbledygook, you know, up on the wall and only Daniel was able to read it for what it really said. Or it could be that the wise men didn't even see it. They couldn't read it because it wasn't there. It's almost like when Nebuchadnezzar had that first dream and he said, I want you to tell me what the dream was and means. I'm not going to tell you what it was. You're going to have to tell me what it was.

You didn't have it. I had it. And you don't have any idea. But you tell me what it is and what it means. And it's almost as if we have the same kind of scenario. It could be. We have the same scenario here. But they didn't couldn't read it because they couldn't see it. It wasn't there for them.

All right. So it is possible if the wise men could read the words, it could mean that they could read the words because they were in Aramaic, but they just couldn't make any sense of it. So there's all kinds of possibilities. You know, you either have to decide here that when it says they could not read the words, you have to decide that maybe the words weren't there or they appeared differently than what they really were or they could read the words, but they didn't make any sense. Just a string of words that really don't go together. All right. So I just throw that out to you and make your own decision.

So he either read it or he interpreted the inscription that was written by the hand of God or the finger of God. Second, then Daniel revealed the interpretation. He revealed the interpretation.

He's certain. There's no debate about that. Verse 26. This is the interpretation of each word, each word. This is what Daniel said. So then let's just break it down. First of all, the meaning of the words. Mene means numbered, means numbered, and it's appears twice, and there's a reason for that. We'll get to that in a moment. Tekel means weighed.

So Mene means numbered, Tekel means weighed, and Ufarsin, or later it's written Perez, Perez, in verse 28. It means divided. All right. So Mene means numbered, Tekel means weighed, Ufarsin, or Perez means divided. All right. So here's what the finger of God wrote on the wall.

Numbered, numbered, weighed, divided. All right. So either the wise men, they didn't even see the words, so they couldn't read it, much less interpret it. Or they saw the words and they could read it because it's Aramaic, but it didn't make any sense. And it really doesn't, does it?

Numbered, numbered, weighed, divided. I mean, that's not even a complete sentence, is it? It's unintelligible. Numbered, numbered, weighed, divided. All right. So second then, the message of the words. So first the meaning of the words, and now the message. What's the message of the words? And we're thankful that Daniel tells us. Mene, in verse 26, God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. So Mene means numbered. God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Now, Mene is repeated twice. It's the only one of the words that's repeated twice. It's repeated twice, and it's repeated twice to signify finality. Finality, or you could put in the word fulfillment.

That is, you know, Belshazzar, your days have been numbered. That's basically the idea here. Your days are numbered. I've determined the number of your days, and you've reached the last one.

That's basically what he's saying. But he's saying more than that, because in verse 27, Tekel, the message in that word is, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

So Tekel means weighed. You've been weighed. All right. Your days have been numbered. You've been weighed. You've been weighed. That is, those days have been weighed, and you've been found wanting. And that means that Belshazzar was deficient in moral worth. Moral worth. God's moral laws were placed. I mean, the image is God's moral laws placed on one side of the scales, and the king's wickedness and life, his wicked life placed on the other side, and the scale did not tip in his favor.

Now, by the way, this is not a message about salvation. You're not going to be saved. No one's saved because, you know, your goodness outweighs your badness. You know, that's not it. That's not what the idea here is. He's come to the end of his days, and Belshazzar has been wicked all those days, disobeyed God's moral laws, and he did not repent, and he did not humble himself before God, and he did not ask God for forgiveness, and so now his final day has arrived, and now it's too late. All right, so he's been numbered, weighed, and then Perez, Perez, or Ufarsen, is how it's spelled earlier in the text. Verse 20, and by the way, Perez is the same word. It's the root of the word. It's another spelling of the same word, and actually, Perez, without its vowels, this is rather interesting, and in the Aramaic, there would be no vowels.

Those are added here in our English text, so we can read something here, but without its vowels, it's the same word for the Persian, for Persian, and guess who's surrounded the city, the Persian.

All right, so Perez is kind of a play on words. Though it means divided, it is also the same word that is used for, that could be translated Persian. All right, so verse 28, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians, and that's exactly what is about to happen.

So that's what it means. And so one other thing, then, wrap this up under the king's dreadful revelation. One more thing, Daniel's exaltation. We'll just mention this quickly. Verse 29, then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold around his neck and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be third ruler in the kingdom. Great day for Daniel. Now, why would Daniel allow that? Well, he probably accepted the reward because it would now not influence his message. There wasn't any issue there. And by the way, it doesn't say that Daniel accepted it, but they just did this for him. So Belshazzar was man of his word. He rewarded him just like he said he would. But the exaltation, of course, is meaningless, right? Because Daniel, I guess we could say Daniel would literally be king for an hour, probably an hour or two, maybe a lot less than that. So it was meaningless. All right, so now we're ready for the last thing, number six in the outline, the king's uneventful termination. Verse 30, that very night, Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, another designation for Babylonians, was slain. He was slain. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old. So if you think about how incredible this is, these last two verses. Short, aren't they? I mean, two short, simple sentences.

In those two short sentences, God's word describes one of the most significant events in world history at the time. The end of the great Babylonian empire and the beginning of the Medo-Persian empire. In just two short sentences, it's described. And it's rather interesting historically, and there are a lot, we have a lot of archaeological evidence about how Babylon was conquered. The Persians surrounded the city. Of course, the city was impregnable, although, I mean, though that's what they thought.

Remember, there was a river, the Euphrates River went down through the center of it, but the most fortified part of it was where the king's palace was and so forth. So all of the gates were closed up, the walls, no way they could climb them, no way they could knock them down, there was no way to get into the city, except the gates on the interior walls that faced the river. But they weren't worried about that. In fact, historians say that the Babylonians didn't even lock those gates.

Because they're effectively inside the city. The river runs down through the middle of it. Well, the Persians went upstream, blocked off the river, rerouted the river, so that the water would go down, and they marched in and went through that interior gate that was unlocked, and conquered the city.

And another historian says that when they came into the banquet that was taking place there, they found Shazar with a dagger ready to take his life. They stopped him, and the soldiers mobbed him and destroyed him, killed him there. Rather interesting. And that marked, of course, the end of the Babylonian Empire. And when we get to chapter 6, we're now in the Medo-Persian Empire and the great king Darius. So that'll be chapter 6.

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