By His prophet Jeremiah the Lord declared that with the second generation from Nebuchadnezzar the end of Babylon would come, and the great empire which had spoiled the nations should be spoiled of them. Jer. 27:7. The fifth chapter of Daniel, our present study, records the termination of that kingdom, which had, to a greater or less extent, molded the world from the time of its founding by Nimrod. Gen. 10:8-10; 11:1-9.
Nebuchadnezzar closed his glorious reign, a converted man, in the year B.C. 561. He was succeeded by his son, Amil-Marduk (servant of Marduk), the Evil-Merodach of the Bible, whose brief reign ended in B.C. 560. The chief thing of note recorded of him is that he, in the first year of his reign, took the Hebrew king, Jehoiachin, out of prison and extended to him royal favor. 2 Kings 25:27-30; Jer. 52:31-34. For this he seems to have aroused the wrath of the hierarchal, or national, party, and he fell a victim to assassination.
The plot to assassinate was devised by Nergal-shar-usur (Neriglissor), and executed at his command. He had been an influential9man at court early in the days of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. He had married one of the great king’s daughters, and was therefore brother-in-law to Evil-Merodach, whose death he caused and whom he succeeded. The tablets indicate that he had been prominent in affairs of commerce and diplomacy. He was a devout idolater, expending large sums in building and repairing the temples of the gods. He lived in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, and followed that great king in his works of improvements. Notwithstanding his prayers for long life, which he has left on record, his reign ended in B.C. 556. He was succeeded by his son, Labashi-Marduk (Laborosoarched), who was but a mere child. A conspiracy was formed against the youth, and he was killed at the end of nine months. Thus retribution was quickly visited upon the house of Neriglissor.
The conspirators chose as a king Nabonadius, “a man of distinguished position,” a native Babylonian, and a man of piety even beyond those who preceded him. His energies seem to have been exhausted in the building and restoration of temples, going oftentimes to the original foundations, finding on the foundation bricks the names of the first builders. The affairs of state and defense of his kingdom seem to have been secondary matters. As Rogers puts it: “In the crucial hour of his country’s history, his whole thought was of gods, not of men. He would save gods, men might save themselves as best they might.” One of his chief works was the rebuilding of the temple of the sun—E-babbara—in Sippar, in honor of his sun-god Shamash.
During the last three years of his reign, which closed in B.C. 538, he associated with himself as joint ruler, Bel-shar-usur (Belshazzar), his son by a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. For years the captious, unbelieving critics had contended that Daniel’s record had no foundation for naming Belshazzar as the last king of Babylon. Those who believed the Bible had endeavored to identify him with Evil-Merodach and Nabonadius. But tablets left by Nabonadius, containing prayers of his, show the Scripture record to be correct. Belshazzar’s last year marks the close of the great empire of Babylon.
Belshazzar’s Feast. J. Martin.
Two Opposite Examples.
Belshazzar’s great feast to a thousand of his lords was evidently at a great festival of the gods. The degeneracy of Babylon is clearly indicated by this royal revel. Four and one-half centuries before, the wise king of Israel had written: “Wo to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!” Eccl. 10:16, 17. The exemplification of that truth on its good side had been before Babylon from the beginning of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar in the course of the four young Hebrews, notably Daniel, who had occupied such prominent positions in the empire. Pure and untarnished in character, noble and generous and upright in all conduct, uncontaminated by the corruptions and plots and counterplots of the empire, these men from their youth had stood forth shining examples of sobriety, temperance, and righteousness.
In Belshazzar was exemplified the opposite side. No greater curse can come upon a land than to have its young men reared in wealth and ease and idleness and debauchery. When that time comes, that land is near its fall. Such a time had come to Babylon; and her king was leading in the revelings and licentiousness of gross nature-worship. Lifted up in his drunken, bestial madness, he commands that the holy golden and silver vessels taken from the temple in Jerusalem should be brought, that he and his nobles, wives, and concubines might drink to the gods of Babylon. In this sacrilegious act of the profanation of the sacred vessels, to which no other king of Babylon had presumed, Belshazzar filled up the cup of Babylon’s iniquity, and demonstrated her unfitness to reign longer. There were nobles at that feast, doubtless, who had heard the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2), it was only about threescore years before—but they remembered it not. There were great men present who saw the great golden image, the fiery furnace, and the manifestation of the power of that God10they were then dishonoring,—less, probably, than fifty years previous,—but they heeded not the lesson. There were many more at that lascivious feast of Tammuz and Ishtar who knew of Nebuchadnezzar’s seven years’ humiliation under the hand of the Most High, and the king’s subsequent royal proclamation,—it was but three decades in the past,—but they protested not at the sacrilege of the king and his courtiers. The holy candlestick was filled and lighted (Dan. 5:5); the holy vessels were filled with wine drunk to the impure rites of the Babylonian Adonis and Venus. The revel was at its height; all were mad with reckless mirth.
The Divine Sentence.
All at once, over on the palace wall, before the candlestick, are seen fingers,—only fingers,—writing, in letters of light, words which the king can not read, but which he feels foretell his doom. Only four words are written, but the erstwhile mad revelers are pale and trembling. Wise men are called, but they can neither read nor interpret the blazing words which are burning themselves into the now sobered king’s heart. A promise is made that he who interprets them shall be clothed in royal purple, shall bear the gold chain of authority, and shall be third ruler in the kingdom.
It required more than human wisdom to interpret the divine sentence. In God’s providence Daniel was again brought forward by Nitoeris, the queen-mother. He told in brave faithfulness of how God had warned Babylon thru Belshazzar’s ancestor, Nebuchadnezzar; of how that mighty king had, in his humiliation, been forced to acknowledge all this; yet, in the face of all these great facts, which Belshazzar knew, he had not only not learned the lesson, but had lifted up his puny self against that God who ruled in the kingdom of men, and upon whom he was dependent for his very breath. God had warned Babylon of its certain doom. Belshazzar had placed himself upon the judgment-seat and defied God. Now God had come to judgment on Babylon. “And this is the writing that was written:
“MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.”
Only four words, but how pregnant with meaning. Literally translated, they read,—
NUMBERED, NUMBERED, WEIGHED,
DIVISIONS.
And this is the interpretation:
“God hath numbered thy kingdom, and brought it to an end.”
“Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” “Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”
The whole lewd feast of Belshazzar is so forcibly and beautifully expressed by the poet, that we feel constrained to here repeat it:
“Belshazzar is king, Belshazzar is lord;
And a thousand dark nobles all bend at his board;
Fruits glisten, flowers blossom, meats steam, and a flood
Of the wine that man loveth runs redder than blood.
Wild dancers are there in a riot of mirth;
With a beauty that maddens the passions of earth;
And the crowds all shout till the vast roofs ring,—
‘All hail to Belshazzar, Belshazzar the king!’
“‘Bring forth,’ cries the monarch, ‘those vessels of gold
Which my father brought forth from the temple of old.’
They are brought, and before him the vessels all shine;
And they bow unto Baal, and they drink the dark wine,
While trumpets all bray, and loud cymbals ring,—
‘All hail to Belshazzar, Belshazzar the king!’
“‘But what cometh? look! without menace or call,
What writes with the lightning’s bright hand on the wall?
What pierces the king like the point of a dart?
What drives the bold blood from the cheek to the heart?—
‘Chaldeans, magicians, the letters expound!’
They are read, and Belshazzar is dead on the ground;
For the Persian is come on the conqueror’s wing,
And a Mede’s on the throne of Belshazzar the king.’”
The revel is over. The army of Medes and Persians, under Cyrus, the great conqueror, seems not to have then been with it, is at the gates. Yes, more; they are even then marching into the city, with no leaders, no army to resist them. Nabonadius is at Borsippa where he surrenders. At Babylon, the very night of the shameless feast, Belshazzar is slain.
Darius the Mede.
The record continues. “And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.” Verse 31, A.R.V. Who Darius is, is a query over which there has been, and is, as much discussion as was waged over Belshazzar. In Dan. 9:1 he is said to be “the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.” He has been identified with a half dozen, more or less, but there is no settled evidence outside of Scripture as to his existence. Some of the critics have declared that no such person reigned in any such power as indicated in Daniel; but we may rest assured that the record of Daniel will be as certainly vindicated as in the case of Belshazzar. As far as now known, the facts seem to be these:
1. Ahasuerus is identical with Astyages, king of the Medes, the grandfather of Cyrus.
2. Astyages was especially noted for his cruelty and inhumanity. When Cyrus came to the throne of Persia, he revolted, and in conjunction with Tigranes of Armenia, and the many foes of Astyages in his own government, defeated the Median king, and united the two kingdoms.
3. In a most politic way Cyrus did not assume the throne of Media at once, but to win the Medes, placed the son of Astyages, Cyarxes II, on the throne, or some other Median prince, called by Daniel, Darius.
4. This action of Cyrus is indicated by Dan. 9:1, which states that Darius was made king; and Dan. 5:31, that he received the kingdom.
5. He was then sixty-two years old, having no heirs. When he died, Cyrus became ruler of both kingdoms. Whatever light there is yet to be thrown upon the question, the Bible believer may be assured that the Scriptures will be confirmed.
The Lesson.
This chapter has its great lesson: “Jehovah judgeth among the nations.” He as truly is the Judge of every soul. Men may deny it; men may hide it from their eyes; they may shut it out of their hearts by greed and lust and pleasure; but sometime, sooner or later, the hand of God will write upon the palace wall of every sinful, impenitent soul,—
NUMBERED, WEIGHED, WANTING.
Now, the blessed, golden now, is the time for all to examine themselves whether they be in the faith. Cast out the sin. Let every soul, let the church of Jesus Christ, empty from the holy vessels of God’s cleansing and choosing the wine of Babylon’s fornication, and let God fill them with the water of life. Let those who profess to be Christ’s disciples cast from them the idolatrous feasting of Babylon’s gluttony and lewdness, and feed upon the pure word of God. The great Jehovah waits to be gracious; but soon will He send the Righteous One. Are you ready for His sentence? You may be ready, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
