Daniel 5:10, commentary and pictures

The queen-mother entered the banquet hall after hearing the distress of the king and his lords over the mysterious writing, greeted Belshazzar with honor, urged him not to let his thoughts trouble him or his face show fear, and directed him to Daniel as one with wisdom to interpret difficult things. She came in the midst of an idolatrous and sacrilegious feast, where in drunken revelry Belshazzar and his lords drank from the vessels consecrated to God while praising gods of gold and silver, until a bloodless hand traced awful characters on the wall and terror seized king and princes. Though the revelers had forgotten God, He had not forgotten them but was present as unseen witness, tracing their destiny on the wall and weighing motives, character, and life in the balances of His sanctuary. Belshazzar had known the lessons of Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation and restoration, but he let pleasure and self-glorification erase them and neglected what he knew, and that neglect brought judgment in the very hour of feasting when Babylon fell. That sudden fall while men feasted pictures the end of the world, warning those living in this momentous time not to say the Lord delays His coming but to be prepared like wise virgins with oil in their vessels to meet the Bridegroom.

Banquet House Setting

Daniel 5:10 stands near the end of Daniel's life, after Nebuchadnezzar's death, when Babylon was ruled by his successors and was gradually falling into dissolution. Belshazzar ruled then as an absolute monarch with the property of lords and nobles at his command, with princes as servants and his will as law. Yet he was void of self-control, hasty, violent, molded by flattery, ferocious when opposed, self-indulgent, gluttonous, drunken, and corrupt at heart.

The banquet house held his idolatrous and sacrilegious feast with music and dancing, feasting, sparkling wine, blasphemy, and flames of idolatrous sacrifice rising in insult to God. Belshazzar led king and lords and princes in drinking from the vessels consecrated to Jehovah while praising gods of gold and silver. He thus desecrated what had been dedicated by holy consecration, applying it to profane and licentious purposes after reason was beclouded and gone under wine and reverence departed. The king and his lords in this way profaned God's sacred vessels.

In the midst of revelry when God was forgotten and carnal senses were inflamed, a bloodless hand traced living characters of awful significance on the palace wall. Terror rushed through every soul, the king's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him, and fear and alarm took hold on king and princes. A hand wrote on the palace wall, and the king and his courtiers heard their doom announced by God's servant.

The verse belongs to the fall of Babylon, which came in an hour of feasting and revelry in the banquet house. Belshazzar's feast is the account to which it belongs, and his failure to heed what he knew preceded that fall.

Queen's Reassuring Counsel

The woman who entered was the queen-mother, the queen of Belshazzar's grandfather, who came into the palace banquet hall by reason of the words of the king and his lords after hearing their distress over the mysterious writing. She spoke to Belshazzar with respectful address, O king, live for ever, urging him not to let his thoughts trouble him, not to be distressed, and not to let his countenance or face or appearance be changed. She remembered Daniel's God-given wisdom and understanding and skill in interpreting difficult matters that had made him known in Nebuchadnezzar's court, and she recommended him as able to explain the writing and urged the king to summon him. In doing so she pointed to a source of counsel amid the presumption of the feast and its forgetfulness of God. Thus the verse places Daniel before Belshazzar during the feast that preceded Babylon's fall.

Judgment and Last-Day Warning

Belshazzar had received opportunities to learn God's will, including the light given in Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation and restoration, but he let pleasure and self-glorification erase those lessons. He neglected the means of learning truth, disregarded what he knew, and failed to practice God's lessons, and that neglect brought judgment and preceded the fall of Babylon. Babylon's rulers brought the kingdom to ruin by forgetting God and giving to human achievement the honor and glory due to Him.

Although the revelers had forgotten God, God had not forgotten them, but was present as an unseen and uninvited witness hearing the praises and seeing the desecration. He was making a history to testify to the close of time, tracing destiny in characters on the wall. Afterward He weighs motives, character, life, and soul in the balances of His sanctuary and pronounces the wanting soul wanting, as He pronounced Belshazzar wanting.

The sudden fall while men feasted and reveled pictures the end of the world. Those now living are in a time of peculiar momentous importance, called to work away from the customs and appointments of the world's great counselors. They are not to take the position that the Lord delays His coming and all things remain as from the beginning of creation, but like wise virgins to be prepared with oil in their vessels with their lamps to go forth to meet the Bridegroom. The same Witness is present when men and women engage in man-and-woman worship. Those living in these last days, upon whom the ends of the world are come, are far more guilty than was Belshazzar when, after vows of consecration to devote soul, body, and spirit to God's service, they desecrate God-given powers to unholy purposes, turn pure devotion and affections due to God to worship a human being, utter praises and adoration belonging alone to God, and bestow solemnly dedicated powers upon lust, which is idol worship of the most degrading kind and ruins the actors.