5. Belshazzar's Feast And The Fall Of Babylon | Bible.org 254 For further discussion of this problem, see Young, pp. [25] October 543 BC is the return date most supported by surviving Babylonian documentation. How old was Daniel when Belshazzar was king? [54] Daniel interprets the writing as a judgment from Yahweh, the god of Israel, foretelling the fall of Babylon. Merrill F. Unger, Ungers Bible Dictionary, pp. Daniel 6:26-27, Daniel prays and fasts about what lies ahead and the Jewish peoples indifference to their captivity. Darius makes the decree public. Montgomery, p. 253, citing Koldewey, Das wieder erstehende Babylon; and E. G. Kraeling, Rand McNally Bible Atlas, p. 327. What happened to King Belshazzar in the book of Daniel? This articleincorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Singer, Isidore; etal., eds. Daniel dies at 84 years old. Cyrus, emperor of Persia, appoints Darius the Mede as viceroy in Babylon. Most expositors disagree with Keil, who identifies Belshazzar with Evil-Merodach, preferring the identification of a son of Nabonidus, based on later evidence not available to Keil.255 The identifications of Leupold are more satisfactory.256. His grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken these cups from the Temple in Jerusalem. Chapter 7 was revealed to Daniel in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon (Dan 7:1) and the vision of the ram and he-goat in chapter 8 occurred in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar (Dan 8:1). This was not prompted by disrespect nor by the evident fact that they would be short-lived. For the duration of the decade-long absence of his father, Belshazzar served as regent in Babylon. The next four years Neriglisar occupied the throne. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Belshazzar, How Stuff Works - History - Biography of Belshazzar. For discussion of Josephus account, see Keil, pp. When Nebuchadnezzar's son King Belshazzar uses the vessels from the Jewish temple for his feast, a hand appears and writes a mysterious . Freedman cites H. Louis Ginsberg (Studies in Daniel, pp. Some have found, in the six materials mentioned, a typical reference to the number of the world amenable to judgment because of its hostility to God.264 In the original, the gods of gold and silver are separated by the conjunction and, not true of the listing of the gods of brass, iron, wood, and stone, as if there were two classes of deities. Although the size of the banquet is not amazing, the situation was most unusual. Nebuchadnezzar II | Biography, Accomplishments, & Facts Daniel (biblical figure) - Wikipedia There Nabonnedus spent the remainder of his life, and there he died^ Flavius Josephus. The outer wall seems to have been only seventeen miles in circumference, instead of about fifty-six as Herodotus claimed, with much fewer towers and gates; and probably even the towers were not more than 100 feet tall. 57-59; cf. . It is possible in the decline of the Babylonian Empire that the number of the wise men was far more limited at this point in history than it was under Nebuchadnezzars reign. It is not at all surprising that the former king (or regent in this case, as Nabonidus was technically still king) was killed by the conquering power. For a map of Babylon in sixth century B.C., see D. J. Wiseman, Babylon, in The New Bible Dictionary, pp. On his return, the doorkeepers refused to admit him. Daniel 5:1-25 ERV. Man may have the first word, but God will have the last word. For example, in the passage, "As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him" (Amos 5:19), the lion is said to represent Nebuchadnezzar, and the bear, equally ferocious if not equally courageous, is Belshazzar. Because he could hardly proclaim himself as king while his father was still alive, Belshazzar proclaimed Nabonidus as king. Here was Daniel, an old man well in his eighties, with the marks of godly living evident in his bearingin sharp contrast to the wine-flushed faces of the crowd. (19011906). 216-17, who discusses this quotation from Pusey. In spite of the problem in the word, it is probable that the offer of honor was that of being the third ruler. [29][1] The Verse Account of Nabonidus, a biased[13] document probably written after Nabonidus was deposed by Cyrus the Great, states that Nabonidus entrusted Belshazzar with the kingship, but there are no records of Belshazzar assuming the royal title. Ev. Now, in chapter 5, this prophecy is about to be fulfilled. 67-68. The conspirators appointed Nabonidus, one of their number, who reigned for seventeen years before being defeated by Cyrus the Persian. His concern was shared by the entire assembly. See J. T. Milik, Priere de Nabonide et autres ecrits dun cycle de Daniel, Revue Biblique 63:407-15. As Nabonidus was relatively old at the time, Belshazzar could expect to become king within a few years. [17] After the accession of his father, Belshazzar emerges in the sources as a prominent businessman and the head of a wealthy household, a role that was typically not picked up by members of the royal family in the Neo-Babylonian period. Athenaeus quotes Heracleides of Cumae, the author of Persian History, in describing in detail the custom of drinking to excess after dinner.259 The luxury of both the drinking and the eating is also illustrated in Athenaeus in describing dinners among the Persians of high station as follows: For one thousand animals are slaughtered daily for the king; these comprise horses, camels, oxen, asses, deer, and most of the smaller animals; many birds also are consumed, including Arabian ostrichesand the creature is largegeese, and cocks.260. As he could lease out temple land, this suggests that Belshazzar, in administrative matters, could act with full royal power. Was Nebuchadnezzar a believer? On the other hand, such a careful scholar as Edward J. Daniel does not explain the difficulty in reading the writing on the wall, but the problem apparently was not that it was a strange language but rather what the words signified prophetically. Daniel 3:12, Nebuchadnezzar confronts Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego about their disobedience. Here the discussion is lost in a maze of conflicting facts in extrabiblical literature concerning which the critics themselves are not agreed. Because his rule was arbitrary and licentious, he was assassinated by Neriglisar after he had reigned only two years. [25] In 546 BC, Cyrus the Great crossed the Tigris to invade Lydia, ostensibly a Babylonian ally, and though Belshazzar took up a defensive position with his army, perhaps expecting a sudden Persian attack against Babylonia itself, no aid was sent to the Lydians, who were swiftly conquered by Cyrus. As Keil points out, the king was ready to listen to anyone who could interpret the writing.269. [48] Nabonidus was captured and possibly exiled to Carmania. 5:30 In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. If she were the wife of Nabonidus who was in captivity she probably would not have desired to come alone. It is possible that Nabonidus was married to one of Nebuchadnezzar II's daughters. (30-31) The death of Belshazzar and the rise of Darius the Mede. Cyrus took Babylon, and after giving orders to raze the outer walls of the city, because it resented a very redoubtable and formidable appearance, proceeded to Borsippa to esiege Nabonnedus. When Nabonidus went into exile (550), he entrusted Belshazzar with the throne and the major part of his army. A. Brinkman, Probably the first recorded mention of Belshazzar, Prince of Babylonia under Nabonnedus is in a cuneiform text 135 in a collection at the Archaeological Museum in Florence published in 1958-60 by Professor Karl Ober-huber of the University of Innsbruck. A great bridge spanned the Euphrates River, connecting the eastern section and the western or new section of the city. [50], In the Book of Daniel, Belshazzar (Hebrew: , Blaar)[1] plays a significant role in the tale of Belshazzar's feast, a variation on the story of Nebuchadnezzar's madness showing what happens when a king does not repent. | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Contact Us, Daniel, along with his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (later named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), is taken to Babylon, where they are ordered to learn Babylonian culture on Nebuchadnezzars orders. It seems likely that skirmishes along the border were frequent from then until Babylon's fall. The chronology of the three Babylonian kings is given in the Talmud as follows: Nebuchadnezzar reigned forty-five years, Evil-merodach twenty-three, and Belshazzar was monarch of Babylonia for two years, being killed at the beginning of the third year on the fatal night of the fall of Babylon (Meg. Daniel 3:16-18, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into the furnace but are unharmed. One preserved document, which regards the granting of the privilege to cultivate a tract of land belonging to the Eanna temple in Uruk, is virtually identical to similar privileges issued by Nabonidus, though it is specified to have been issued by Belshazzar. [49][51][52] He may have alternatively been killed already at the battle of Opis,[1] captured and executed, or exiled together with his father. Here was a man who did not fear man and feared only God. This same son of the king is most probably mentioned . Daniel describes graphically in verse 19 how Nebuchadnezzar was feared and had absolute authority of life and death over his people and, accordingly, was an absolute sovereign. But the Babylonians, having taken the field, awaited his coming; and when he had advanced near the city, the Babylonians gave battle, and, being defeated, were shut up in the city. Daniel 5:30 Commentaries: That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, pp. 114 ff. He is considered perhaps the world's foremost interpreter of biblical prophecy.John is perhaps best known for his bestselling work on Bible prophecy, Armageddon More. Norman Porteous, for instance, writes, On the other hand it is known that Belshazzar was a historical person, the son of the last Babylonian king Nabonidus, who acted as regent of Babylon for several years before its fall, while his father was absent at the oasis of Teima in Arabia.252 This would begin Belshazzars regency about 553 B.C., when Nabonidus went to Teima. [26] The purpose for this prolonged stay, effectively self-exile, in Tayma are unclear and debated. He died about 561 and was succeeded by his son Awil-Marduk (Evil-Merodach of 2 Kings). [7] The story of Belshazzar's feast is historical fiction, and several details are not consistent with historical facts. The whole surrounding territory of the city of Babylon and the related provinces already had been conquered. Young suggests, after some of the rabbis, that the characters may have been written vertically,281 and in that case in the Aramaic order they would have appeared as follows: If, in addition to the complications of the Aramaic, a language which was known, some unfamiliar form of their characters was used, it would indeed have required divine revelation to give a suitable explanation and interpretation, and may account for the difficulty in reading the writing. Who succeeded Belshazzar as king of Babylon? As Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he ordered his servants to bring the gold and silver cups. His thin courage, bolstered by wine drunk from vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had plundered and were seemingly a symbol of the power of the gods of Babylon, now deserted him. 00:00. Putting this together, we might expect Belshazzar to have been 40+ at the fall of Babylon when he was slain (539 BC). 249 According to J. King Belshazzar wanted his royal people, his wives . 5:1-4 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. . 89-93. Belshazzar was not allowed to date documents after his own "regnal years". 9. 5:17-23 Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. E. G. Kraeling (The Handwriting on the Wall, Journal of Biblical Literature 63 [1944]: 11-18) assuming that five kings are in viewi.e., mene is given twice and the upharsin equals two half-minassuggests that the five kings following Nebuchadnezzar were intended, viz., Evil-Merodach, Neriglissar, Labashi-Marduk, Nabonidus and Belshazzar. Daniel 5:2 Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king could drink from them, along with his . 278 There is a remarkably close parallel to the language of 5:23 in the Prayer of Nabonidus found in Qumran Cave 4:See J. T. Milik, pp. In his reign the walls of Babylon abutting on the river were magnificently built with baked brick and bitumen. 264 Otto Zockler, Daniel, Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, p. 126. In the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible, Belshazzar is referred to as Nebuchadnezzar's (grand)son. 245 The actual text of Berosus is as follows: After beginning the wall of which I have spoken, Nabuchodonosor fell sick and died, after a reign of forty-three years, and the realm passed to his son Evilmaraduch. Belshazzar is made to understand that Babylon will be given to the Medes and the Persians. And the king spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. In beginning his explanation of the handwriting on the wall, Daniel first of all reads the writing; and for the first time, the words are introduced into the text of this chapter. Nabonidus was allowed to live in Carmania until the time of his death, but he was not allowed to come to Babylonia.245, The account of Berosus preserved by Josephus is supported by other evidence such as the short fragment of Abydenus preserved by Eusebius.246, Until the discovery of the Nabonidus Cylinder, no mention of Belshazzar, whom Daniel declares to be king of Babylon, had been found in extrabiblical literature. This distinction is supported by Keil.265, Their pride in their deities may have been bolstered by the magnificence of the city of Babylon itself, interpreted as an evidence of the power of their gods. Approximately twenty-three years elapsed between chapter 4 and chapter 5. Daniel 12:13, Cyrus allows the Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Belshazzar's fate is not known, but is often assumed that he was killed during Cyrus the Great's Persian invasion of Babylonia in 539 BC, presumably at the fall of the capital Babylon on 12 October 539 BC. Having stationed his forces and given these directions, he himself marched away with the ineffective part of his army; and having come to the lake, Cyrus did the same with respect to the river and the lake as the queen of the Babylonians had done; for having diverted the river, by means of a canal, into the lake, which was before a swamp, he made the ancient channel fordable by the sinking of the river. Was Nebuchadnezzar the father of Belshazzar? - Studybuff The crisis produced by the inability of the wise men to interpret the handwriting on the wall is met by the entrance of one described as the queen. Much speculation surrounds the identity of this person as it is related to the larger question of Belshazzars lineage. Now Belshazzar was all too eager to have the gifts of this man exercised to interpret the writing. Daniel 6:16, Darius hurries to the lions den the following day to see what happened to Daniel and learns to his astonishment that Daniel is unharmed. This, no doubt, prepared the way for the co-regency under Nabonidus which probably began 553 B.C., supporting Daniel 5. of natural causes. Their confidence in their gods was bolstered by their confidence in their city. [44] Upon Nabonidus's return to Babylon, Belshazzar was demoted from his administrative responsibilities and officials he had appointed were dismissed. 184-85. The information embodied in these two visions, insofar as Daniel understood it, therefore was known to Daniel before the event of chapter 5 which chronologically came after chapters 7 and 8. Although the author of the Book of Daniel describes Belshazzar as the son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar as king of Babylon, Belshazzar was, in fact, neither. the second year of Darius the King King of what, exactly ? Belshazzar | king of Babylonia | Britannica