BIBLES NET. COM
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
D A N I E L.
CHAP. V.
The destruction of the kingdom of Babylon had been long and often
foretold when it was at a distance; in this chapter we have it
accomplished, and a prediction of it the very same night that it was
accomplished. Belshazzar now reigned in Babylon; some compute he had
reigned seventeen years, others but three; we have here the story of
his exit and the period of his kingdom. We must know that about two
years before this Cyrus king of Persia, a growing monarch, came against
Babylon with a great army; Belshazzar met him, fought him, and was
routed by him in a pitched battle. He and his scattered forces retired
into the city, where Cyrus besieged them. They were very secure,
because the river Euphrates was their bulwark, and they had twenty
years; provision in the city; but in the second year of the siege he
took it, as is here related. We have in this chapter,
I. The riotous, idolatrous, sacrilegious feast which Belshazzar made,
in which he filled up the measure of his iniquity,
II. The alarm given him in the midst of his jollity by a hand-writing
on the wall, which none of his wise men could read or tell him the
meaning of,
III. The interpretation of the mystical characters by Daniel, who was
at length brought in to him, and dealt plainly with him, and showed him
his doom written,
IV. The immediate accomplishment of the interpretation in the slaying
of the king and seizing of the kingdom,
| Belshazzar’s Feast; The Hand-writing on the Wall. | B. C. 538. |
|
|
|
1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his
lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
2 Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the
golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had
taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king,
and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink
therein.
3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of
the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the
king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in
them.
4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver,
of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and
wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall
of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that
wrote.
6 Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts
troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and
his knees smote one against another.
7 The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the
Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to
the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and
show 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.
8 Then came in all the king’s wise men: but they could not
read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation
thereof.
9 Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his
countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonied.
We have here Belshazzar the king very gay, but all of a sudden very
gloomy, and in straits in the fulness of his sufficiency. See how he
affronts God, and God affrights him; and wait what will be the issue of
this contest; and whether he that hardened his heart against God
prospered.
I. See how the king affronted God, and put contempt upon him. He
made a great feast, or banquet of wine; probably it was
some anniversary solemnity, in honour off his birth-day or
coronation-day, or in honour of some of their idols. Historians say
that Cyrus, who was now with his army besieging Babylon, knew of this
feast, and presuming that they then would be off their guard, somno
vinoque sepulti–buried in sleep and wine, took that opportunity to
attack the city, and so with the more ease made himself master of it.
Belshazzar upon this occasion invited a thousand of his lords to
come and drink with him. Perhaps they were such as had signalized
themselves in defense of the city against the besiegers; or these were
his great council of war, with whom, when they had well drunk, he would
advise what was further to be done. And they were to look upon it as a
great favour that he drank wine before them, for it was the
pride of those eastern kings to be seldom seen. He drank wine before
them, for he made this feast, as Ahasuerus did, to show the honour
of his majesty. Now in this sumptuous feast,
1. He put an affront upon the providence of God and bade defiance to
his judgments. His city was now besieged; a powerful enemy was at his
gates; his life and kingdom lay at stake. In all this the hand of the
Lord had gone out against him, and by it he called him to weeping,
and mourning, and girding with sackcloth. God’s voice cried in the
city, as Jonah to Nineveh, Yet forty days, or fewer, and
Babylon shall be destroyed. He should therefore, like the king of
Nineveh, have proclaimed a fast; but, as one resolved to walk contrary
to God, he proclaims a feast, and behold joy and gladness, slaying
oxen, killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine, as if he
dared the Almighty to do his worst,
To show how little fear he had of being forced to surrender, for want
of provisions, he spent thus extravagantly. Note, Security and
sensuality are sad presages of approaching ruin. Those that will not be
warned by judgments of God may expect to be wounded by them.
2. He put an affront upon the temple of God, and bade defiance to his
sanctuary,
v. 2.
While he tasted the wine, he commanded to bring the vessels of
the temple, that they might drink in them. When he tasted how rich and
fine the wine was, “O,” said he, “it is a pity but we should have holy
vessels to drink such delicious wine as this in,” which was looked upon
as a piece of wit, and, to carry on the humour, the vessels of the
temple were immediately sent for. Nay, there seems to have been
something more in it than a frolic, and that it was done in a malicious
despite to the God of Israel. The heart of his people was very much
upon these sacred vessels, as appears from
Their principal care, at their return, was about these,
Now, we may suppose, they had an expectation of their deliverance
approaching, reckoning the seventy years of their captivity near a
period; and some of them might perhaps have given out some words to
that purport, that shortly they should have the vessels of the
sanctuary restored to them, in defiance of which Belshazzar here
proclaims them to be his own, will keep them in store no longer, but
will make use of them among his own plate. Note, That mirth is sinful
indeed, and fills the measure of men’s iniquity apace, which profanes
sacred things and jests with them. This ripened Babylon for ruin–that
no songs would serve them but the songs of Zion
no vessels but the vessels of the sanctuary. Let those who thus
sacrilegiously alienate what is dedicated to God and his honour know
that he will not be mocked.
3. He put an affront upon God himself, and bade defiance to his deity;
for they drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver,
v. 4.
They gave that glory to images, the work of their own hands and
creatures of their own fancy, which is due to the true and living God
only. They praised them either with sacrifices offered to them or with
songs sung in honour of them. When their heads were giddy, and their
hearts merry, with wine, they were in the fittest frame to praise
the gods of gold and silver, wood and stone; for one would think
that men in their senses, who had the command of a clear and sober
thought, could not be guilty of so gross an absurdity; they must be
intoxicated ere they could be so infatuated. Drunken worshippers, who
are not men, but beasts, are the most proper for the service of
dunghill deities, that are not gods, but devils. They have erred
through wine,
Isa. xxvii. 7.
They drank wine, and praised their idol-gods, as if they had been the
founders of their feast and the givers of all good things to them. Or,
when they were drinking wine, they praised their gods by drinking
healths to them; and the king drank wine before them
(v. 1),
that is, he began the health, first to this god, and then to the other,
till they went through the bead-roll or farrago of them,
those of wood and stone not excepted. Note, Immorality and
impiety, vice and profaneness, strengthen the hands and advance the
interests one of another. Drunken frolics were an introduction to
idolatry, and then idolatrous healths were a shoeing-horn to further
drunkenness.
II. See how God affrighted the king, and struck a terror upon him.
Belshazzar and his lords are in the midst of their revels, the cups
going round apace, and all upon the merry pin, drinking confusion, it
may be, to Cyrus and his army, and roaring out huzzas, in confidence of
the speedy raising of the siege; but the hour had come when that must
be fulfilled which had been long ago said of the king of Babylon, when
his city should be besieged by the Persians and Medes,
The night of my pleasures has he turned into fear to me. The
mirth of this ball at court must be spoiled, and a damp cast upon their
jollity, though the king himself be master of the revels; immediately,
when God speaks the word, we have him and all his guests in the utmost
confusion, and the end of their mirth is heaviness.
1. There appear the fingers of a man’s hand writing on the plaster
of the wall, before the king’s face
(v. 5),
“the angel Gabriel,” say the rabbin, “directing these fingers and
writing by them.” “That divine hand” (says a rabbi of our own, Dr.
Lightfoot) “that had written the two tables for a law to his people now
writes the doom of Babel and Belshazzar upon the wall.” Here was
nothing sent to frighten them which made a noise, or threatened their
lives, no claps of thunder nor flashes of lightning, no destroying
angel with his sword drawn in his hand, only a pen in the hand, writing
upon the wall, over-against the candlestick, where they might
all see it by the light of their own candle. Note, God’s written word
is sufficient to put the proudest boldest sinners into a fright, when
he is pleased to give it the setting on. The king saw the part of
the hand that wrote, but saw not the person whose hand it was,
which made the thing more frightful. Note, What we see of God, the part
of the hand that writes in the book of the creatures and the book of
the scriptures (Lo, these are parts of his ways,
Job xxvi. 14),
may serve to possess us with awful thoughts concerning that of God
which we do not see. If this be the finger of God, what is his
arm made bare? And what is he?
2. The king is immediately seized with a panic fear
(v. 6):
His countenance was changed (his colour went and came); the
joints of his loins were loosed, so that he had no strength in
them, but was struck with a pain in his back, as is usual in a great
fright; his knees smote one against another, so violently did he
tremble like an aspen leaf. But what was the matter? Why is he in such
a fright? He perceives not what is written, and how does he know but it
may be some happy presage of deliverance to him and to his kingdom? But
the business was his thoughts troubled him; his own guilty
conscience flew in his face, and told him that he had no reason to
expect any good news from Heaven, and that the hand of an angel could
write nothing but terror to him. He that knew himself liable to the
justice of God immediately concluded this to be an arrest in his name,
a summons to appear before him. Note, God can soon awaken the most
secure and make the heart of the stoutest sinner to tremble; and there
needs no more to do it than to let loose his own thoughts upon him;
they will soon play the tyrant, and give him trouble enough.
3. The wise men of Babylon are immediately called in, to see what they
can make of this writing upon the wall,
v. 7.
The king cried aloud, as one in haste, as one in earnest, to
bring the whole college of magicians, to try if they can read this
writing, and show the interpretation of it; for the king and
all his lords cannot pretend to it, it is out of their sphere. The
study of divine revelation (such as they had, or thought they had) and
converse with the world of spirits were by the heathen confined to one
profession, and no other meddled with it; but what is written to us by
the finger of God is legible to all; whoever will may read the mind of
God in the scriptures. To engage these wise men to exert the utmost of
their skill in this matter, and provoke them to an emulation in the
attempt, he promised that whoever would give him a satisfactory account
of this writing should be dignified with the highest honours of the
court. He knew what these pretenders to wisdom aimed at, and what would
please them, and therefore promised them a scarlet robe and a
gold chain, glorious things in the eyes of those that know no
better. Nay, he should be primus par regni–chief minister of
state, the third ruler in the kingdom, next to the king and his
heir apparent.
4. The king is disappointed in his expectations from them; they can
none of them read the writing, much less interpret it
(v. 8),
which increases the king’s confusion,
v. 9.
He likes the thing yet worse and worse, and fears that mischief is
towards him. His lords also, that had been partners with him in
his jollity, are now sharers with him in his terrors; they also were
astonished at their wits’ end; and neither their numbers nor
their refreshment by wine would serve to keep up their spirits. The
reason why the wise men could not read the writing was not because it
was written in any language or characters unknown to them, but God
either cast a mist before their eyes or put such confusion upon their
spirits that they could not read it, that the honour of expounding this
mystical writing might be reserved for Daniel. Note, The terror of an
awakened convinced conscience may justly be increased by the utter
insufficiency of all creatures to give it ease or satisfaction.
| Daniel Brought before Belshazzar. | B. C. 538. |
|
|
|
10 Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his
lords, came into the banquet house: and the queen spake and
said, O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee,
nor let thy countenance be changed:
11 There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of
the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and
understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found
in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I
say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers,
Chaldeans, and soothsayers;
12 Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and
understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard
sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same
Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be
called, and he will show the interpretation.
13 Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king
spake and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which art
of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my
father brought out of Jewry?
14 I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is
in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom
is found in thee.
15 And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought
in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known
unto me the interpretation thereof: but they could not show the
interpretation of the thing:
16 And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make
interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the
writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou
shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about
thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.
17 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.
18 O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy
father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour:
19 And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations,
and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he
slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set
up; and whom he would he put down.
20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in
pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his
glory from him:
21 And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was
made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses:
they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the
dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the
kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he
will.
22 And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine
heart, though thou knewest all this;
23 But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and
they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou,
and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in
them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of
brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know:
and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all
thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
24 Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this
writing was written.
25 And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE,
TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath
numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
27 TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found
wanting.
28 PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and
Persians.
29 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with
scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a
proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in
the kingdom.
Here is,
I. The information given to the king, by the queen-mother, concerning
Daniel, how fit he was to be consulted in this difficult case. It is
supposed that this queen was the widow of Evil-Merodach, and was that
famous Nitocris whom Herodotus mentions as a woman of extraordinary
prudence. She was not present at the feast, as the king’s wives and
concubines were
(v. 2);
it was not agreeable to her age and gravity to keep a merry night. But,
tidings of the fright which the king and his lords were put into being
brought to her apartment, she came herself to the banqueting-house, to
recommend to the king a physician for his melancholy. She entreated him
not to be discouraged by the insufficiency of his wise men to solve
this riddle, for that there was a man in his kingdom that had
more than once helped his grandfather at such a dead lift, and, no
doubt, could help him,
She could not undertake to read the writing herself, but directed him
to one that could; let Daniel be called now, who should have
been called first. Now observe,
1. The high character she gives of Daniel: He is a man in whom is
the spirit of the holy gods, who has something in him more than
human, not only the spirit of a man, which, in all, is the
candle of the Lord, but a divine spirit. According to the
language of her country and religion, she could not give a higher
encomium of any man; she speaks honourably of him as a man that had,
(1.) An admirably good head: Light, and understanding, and wisdom,
like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him. Such an insight had
he into things secret, and such a foresight of things to come, that it
was evident he was divinely inspired; he had knowledge and
understanding beyond all the other wise men for interpreting
dreams, explaining enigmas or hard sentences, untying knots, and
resolving doubts. Solomon had a wonderful sagacity of this kind; but it
should seem that in these things Daniel had more of an immediate divine
direction. Behold, a greater than Solomon himself is
here. Yet what was the wisdom of them both compared with the
treasures of wisdom hidden in Christ?
(2.) He had an admirably good heart: An excellent spirit was found
in him, which was a great ornament to his wisdom and knowledge, and
qualified him to receive that gift; for God gives to a man that is
good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy. He was of a
humble, holy, heavenly spirit, had a devout and gracious spirit, a
spirit of zeal for the glory of God and the good of men. This was
indeed an excellent spirit.
2. The account she gives of the respect that Nebuchadnezzar had for
him; he was much in his favour, and was preferred by him: “The king
thy father” (that is, thy grandfather, but even to many
generations Nebuchadnezzar might well be called the father of that
royal family, for he it was that raised it to such a pitch of
grandeur), “the king, I say, thy father, made him master of
the magicians.” Perhaps Belshazzar had sometimes, in his pride,
spoken slightly of Nebuchadnezzar, and his politics, and the methods of
his government, and the ministers he employed, and thought himself
wiser than he; and therefore his mother harps upon that. “The
king, I say, thy father, to whose good management all thou
hast owing, he pronounced him chief of, and gave him dominion over, all
the wise men of Babylon, and named him Belteshazzar, according
to the name of his god, thinking thereby to put honour upon him;” but
Daniel, by constantly making use of his Jewish name himself (which he
resolved to keep, in token of his faithful adherence to his religion),
had worn out that name; only the queen-dowager remembered it, otherwise
he was generally called Daniel. Note, It is a very good office
to revive the remembrance of the good services of worthy men, who are
themselves modest, and willing that they should be forgotten.
3. The motion she makes concerning him: Let Daniel be called, and he
will show the interpretation. By this it appears that Daniel was
now forgotten at court. Belshazzar was a stranger to him, knew not that
he had such a jewel in his kingdom. With the new king there came in a
new ministry, and the old one was laid aside. Note, There are a great
many valuable men, and such as might be made very useful, that lie long
buried in obscurity, and some that have done eminent services that live
to be overlooked and taken no notice of; but, whatever men are, God is
not unrighteous to forget the services done to his kingdom. Daniel,
being turned out of his place, lived privately, and sought not any
opportunity to come into notice again; yet he lived near the court and
within call, though Babylon was now besieged, that he might be ready,
if there were occasion, to do any good office, by what interest he had
among the great ones, for the children of his people. But Providence so
ordered it that now, just at the fall of that monarchy, he should by
the queen’s means be brought to court again, that he might lie there
ready for preferment in the ensuing government. Thus do the
righteous shine forth out of obscurity, and before honour is
humility.
II. The introducing of Daniel to the king, and his request to him to
read and expound the writing. Daniel was brought in before the
king,
v. 13.
He was now nearly ninety years of age, so that his years, and honours,
and former preferments, might have entitled him to a free admission
into the king’s presence; yet he was willing to be conducted in, as a
stranger, by the master of the ceremonies. Note,
1. The king asks, with an air of haughtiness: Art thou that Daniel
who art of the children of the captivity? Being a Jew, and a
captive, he was loth to be beholden to him if he could help it.
2. He tells him what an encomium he had heard of him
(v. 14),
that the spirit of the gods was in him; and he had sent for him
to try whether he deserved so high a character or no.
3. He acknowledges that all the wise men of Babylon were baffled; they
could not read this writing, nor show the interpretation,
v. 16.
But,
4. He promises him the same rewards that he had promised them if he
would do it,
It was strange that the magicians, when now, and in Nebuchadnezzar’s
time, once and again, they were nonplussed, did not attempt something
to save their credit; if they had with a good assurance said, “This is
the meaning of such a dream, such a writing,” who could disprove them?
But God so ordered it that they had nothing at all to say, as, when
Christ was born, the heathen oracles were struck dumb.
III. The interpretation which Daniel gave of these mystic characters,
which was so far from easing the king of his fears that we may suppose
it increased them rather. Daniel was now in years, and Belshazzar was
young; and therefore he seems to take a greater liberty of dealing
plainly and roundly with him than he had done upon the like occasions
with Nebuchadnezzar. In reproving any man, especially great men, there
is need of wisdom to consider all circumstances; for they are the
reproofs of instruction that are the way of life. In
Daniel’s discourse here,
1. He undertakes to read the writing which gave them this alarm, and to
show them the interpretation of it,
He slights the offer he made him of rewards, is not pleased that it was
mentioned, for he is not one of those that divine for money;
what gratuities Nebuchadnezzar gave him afterwards he gladly accepted,
but he scorned to bargain for them, or to read the writing to the
king for and in consideration of such and such honours promised
him. No: “Let thy gifts be to thyself, for they will not be long
thine, and give thy fee to another, to any of the wise men whom
thou wouldst have most wished to earn it; I value it not.” Daniel sees
his kingdom now at its last gasp, and therefore looks with contempt
upon his gifts and rewards. And thus should we despise all the gifts
and rewards that this world can give did we see, as we may by faith,
its final period hastening on. Let it give its perishing gifts to
another; there are better gifts which we have our eyes and hearts upon;
but let us do our duty in the world, do it all the real service we can,
read God’s writing to it in a profession of religion, and by an
agreeable conversation make known the interpretation of it, and then
trust God for his gifts, his rewards, in comparison with which all the
world can give is mere trash and trifles.
2. He largely recounts to the king God’s dealings with his father
Nebuchadnezzar, which were intended for instruction and warning to him,
This is not intended for a flourish or an amusement, but is a necessary
preliminary to the interpretation of the writing. Note, That we may
understand aright what God is doing with us, it is of use to us to
review what he has done with others.
(1.) He describes the great dignity and power to which the divine
Providence had advanced Nebuchadnezzar,
He had a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour, for aught
we know, above what any heathen prince ever had before him; he thought
that he got his glory by his own extraordinary conduct and courage, and
ascribed his successes to a projecting active genius of his own; but
Daniel tells him who now enjoyed what he had laboured for that it was
the most high God, the God of gods and Lord of kings (as
Nebuchadnezzar himself had called him), that gave him that
kingdom, that vast dominion, that majesty wherewith he presided in
the affairs of it, and that glory and honour which by his
prosperous management he acquired. Note, Whatever degree of outward
prosperity any arrive at, they must own that it is of God’s giving, not
their own getting. Let it never be said, My might, and the
power of my hand, have gotten me this wealth, this preferment; but
let it always be remembered that it is God that gives men power to
get wealth, and gives success to their endeavours. Now the power
which God gave to Nebuchadnezzar is here described to be very great in
respect both of ability and of authority.
[1.] His ability was so strong that it was irresistible; such was the
majesty that God gave him, so numerous were the forces he had at
command, and such an admirable dexterity he had at commanding them,
that, which way soever his sword turned, it prospered. He could
captivate and subdue nations by threatening them, without striking a
stroke, for all people trembled and feared before him, and would
compound with him for their lives upon any terms. See what force is,
and what the fear of it does. It is that by which the brutal part of
the world, even of the world of mankind, both governs and is governed.
[2.] His authority was so absolute that it was uncontrollable. The
power which was allowed him, which descended upon him, or which, at
least, he assumed, was without contradiction, was absolute and
despotic, none shared with him either in the legislative or in the
executive part of it. In dispensing punishments he condemned or
acquitted at pleasure: Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he
saved alive, though both were equally innocent or equally guilty.
The jus vitæ et necis–the power of life and death was
entirely in his hand. In dispensing rewards he granted or denied
preferment at pleasure: Whom he would he set up, and whom he would
he put down, merely for a humour, and without giving a reason so
much as to himself; but it is all ex mero motu–of his own good
pleasure, and stat pro ratione voluntas–his will stands for a
reason. Such was the constitution of the eastern monarchies, such
the manner of their kings.
(2.) He sets before him the sins which Nebuchadnezzar had been guilty
of, whereby he had provoked God against him.
[1.] He behaved insultingly towards those that were under him, and grew
tyrannical and oppressive. The description given of his power intimates
his abuse of his power, and that he was directed in what he did by
humour and passion, not by reason and equity; so that he often
condemned the innocent and acquitted the guilty, both which are an
abomination to the Lord. He deposed men of merit and preferred
unworthy men, to the great detriment of the public, and for this he was
accountable to the most high God, that gave him his power. Note, It is
a very hard and rare thing for men to have an absolute arbitrary power,
and not to make an ill use of it. Camden has a distich of Giraldus,
wherein he speaks of it as a rare instance, concerning our king Henry
II of England, that never any man had so much power and did so little
hurt with it.
| Glorior hoc uno, quod nunquam vidimus unum,
Nec potuisse magis, nec nocuisse minus– Of him I can say, exulting, that with the same power to do harm no one was ever more inoffensive. |
But that was not all.
[2.] He behaved insolently towards the God above him, and grew proud
and haughty
(v. 20):
His heart was lifted up, and there his sin and ruin began; his
mind was hardened in pride, hardened against the commands of God
and his judgments; he was willful and obstinate, and neither the word
of God nor his rod made any lasting impression upon him. Note, Pride is
a sin that hardens the heart in all other sin and renders the means of
repentance and reformation ineffectual.
(3.) He reminds him of the judgments of God that were brought upon him
for his pride and obstinacy, how he was deprived of his reason, and so
deposed from his kingly throne
(v. 20),
driven from among men, to dwell with the wild asses,
v. 21.
He that would not govern his subjects by rules of reason had not reason
sufficient for the government himself. Note, Justly does God deprive
men of their reason when they become unreasonable and will not use it,
and of their power when they become oppressive and use it ill. He
continued like a brute till he knew and embraced that first
principle of religion, That the most high God rules. And it is
rather by religion than reason that man is distinguished from, and
dignified above, the beasts; and it is more his honour to be a subject
to the supreme Creator than to be lord of the inferior creatures. Note,
Kings must know, or shall be made to know, that the most high God rules
in their kingdoms (that is an imperium in imperio–an empire within
an empire, not to be excepted against), and that he appoints over
them whomsoever he will. As he makes heirs, so he makes princes.
3. In God’s name, he exhibits articles of impeachment against
Belshazzar. Before he reads him his doom, from the hand-writing on the
wall, he shows him his crime, that God may be justified when he
speaks, and clear when he judges. Now that which he lays to his
charge is,
(1.) That he had not taken warning by the judgments of God upon his
father
(v. 22):
Thou his son, O Belshazzar! hast not humbled thy heart, though thou
knewest all this. Note, It is a great offence to God if our hearts
be not humbled before him to comply both with his precepts and with his
providences, humbled by repentance, obedience, and patience; nay, he
expects from the greatest of men that their hearts should be humbled
before him, by an acknowledgment that, great as they are, to him they
are accountable. And it is a great aggravation of the unhumbledness of
our hearts when we know enough to humble them but do not consider and
improve it, particularly when we know how others have been broken that
would not bend, how others have fallen that would not stoop, and yet we
continue stiff and inflexible. It makes the sin of children the more
heinous if they tread in the steps of their parents’ wickedness, though
they have seen how dearly it has cost them, and how pernicious the
consequences of it have been. Do we know this, do we know all this, and
yet are we not humbled?
(2.) That he had affronted God more impudently than Nebuchadnezzar
himself had done, witness the revels of this very night, in the midst
of which he was seized with this horror
(v. 23):
“Thou hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, hast
swelled with rage against him, and taken up arms against his crown and
dignity, in this particular instance, that thou hast profaned the
vessels of his house, and made the utensils of his sanctuary
instruments of thy iniquity, and, in an actual designed contempt of
him, hast praised the gods of silver and gold, which see not, nor
hear, nor know anything, as if they were to be preferred before the
God that sees, and hears, and knows every thing.” Sinners that are
resolved to go on in sin are well enough pleased with gods that
neither see, nor hear, nor know, for then they may sin securely;
but they will find, to their confusion, that though those are the gods
they choose those are not the gods they must be judged by, but one to
whom all things are naked and open.
(3.) That he had not answered the end of his creation and maintenance:
The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways,
hast thou not glorified. This is a general charge, which stands
good against us all; let us consider how we shall answer it. Observe,
[1.] Our dependence upon God as our creator, preserver, benefactor,
owner, and ruler; not only from his hand our breath was at first, but
in his hand our breath is still; it is he that holds our
souls in life, and, if he take away our breath, we die. Our
times being in his hand, so is our breath, by which our times
are measured. In him we live, and move, and have our being; we
live by him, live upon him, and cannot live without him. The way of
man is not in himself, not at his own command, at his own disposal,
but his are all our ways; for our hearts are in his hand, and so
are the hearts of all men, even of kings, who seem to act most as
free-agents.
[2.] Our duty to God, in consideration of this dependence; we ought to
glorify him, to devote ourselves to his honour and employ ourselves in
his service, to make it our care to please him and our business to
praise him.
[3.] Our default in this duty, notwithstanding that dependence; we have
not done it; for we have all sinned, and come short of the glory of
God. This is the indictment against Belshazzar; there needs no
proof, it is made good by the notorious evidence of the fact, and his
own conscience cannot but plead guilty to it. And therefore,
4. He now proceeds to read the sentence, as he found it written upon
the wall: “Then” (says Daniel) “when thou hast come to such a
height of impiety as thus to trample upon the most sacred things,
then when thou wast in the midst of thy sacrilegious idolatrous
feast, then was the part of the hand, the writing fingers, sent
from him, from that God whom thou didst so daringly affront, and
who had borne so long with thee, but would bear no longer; he sent
them, and this writing, thou now seest, was written,
v. 24.
It is he that now writes bitter things against thee, and
makes thee to possess thy iniquities,”
Note, As the sin of sinners is written in the book of God’s
omniscience, so the doom of sinners is written in the book of God’s
law; and the day is coming when those books shall be opened, and
they shall be judged by them. Now the writing was, Mene, Mene,
Tekel, Upharsin,
v. 25.
It is well that we have an authentic exposition of these words annexed,
else we could make little of them, so concise are they; the
signification of them is, He has numbered, he has weighed, and they
divide. The Chaldean wise men, because they knew not that there is
but one God only, could not understand who this He should be,
and for that reason (some think) the writing puzzled them.
(1.) Mene; that is repeated, for the thing is certain–Mene,
mene; that signifies, both in Hebrew and Chaldee, He has
numbered and finished, which Daniel explains thus
(v. 26):
“God has numbered thy kingdom, the years and days of the
continuance of it; these were numbered in the counsel of God, and now
they are finished; the term has expired for and during which thou wast
to hold it, and now it must be surrendered. Here is an end of thy
kingdom.”
(2.) Tekel; that signifies, in Chaldee, Thou art weighed,
and, in Hebrew, Thou art too light. So Dr. Lightfoot. For this
king and his actions are weighed in the just and unerring balances of
divine equity. God does as perfectly know his true character as the
goldsmith knows the weight of that which he has weighed in the nicest
scales. God does not give judgment against him till he has first
pondered his actions, and considered the merits of his case. “But thou
art found wanting, unworthy to have such a trust lodged in thee,
a vain, light, empty man, a man of no weight or consideration.”
(3.) Upharsin, which should be rendered, and Pharsin, or
Peres. Parsin, in Hebrew, signifies the Persians;
Paresin, in Chaldee, signifies dividing; Daniel puts both
together
(v. 28):
“Thy kingdom is divided, is rent from thee, and given to the
Medes and Persians, as a prey to be divided among them.” Now this
may, without any force, be applied to the doom of sinners. Mene,
Tekel, Peres, may easily be made to signify death, judgment,
and hell. At death, the sinner’s days are numbered and
finished; after death the judgment, when he will be weighed
in the balance and found wanting; and after judgment the sinner
will be cut asunder, and given as a prey to the devil and his
angels. Daniel does not here give Belshazzar such advice and
encouragement to repent as he had given Nebuchadnezzar, because he saw
the decree had gone forth and he would not be allowed any space to
repent.
One would have thought that Belshazzar would be exasperated against
Daniel, and, seeing his own case desperate, would be in a rage against
him. But he was so far convicted by his own conscience of the
reasonableness of all he said that he objected nothing against it; but,
on the contrary, gave Daniel the reward he promised him, put on him the
scarlet gown and the gold chain, and proclaimed him the
third ruler in the kingdom
(v. 29),
because he would be as good as his word, and because it was not
Daniel’s fault if the exposition of the hand-writing was not such as he
desired. Note, Many show great respect to God’s prophets who yet have
no regard to his word. Daniel did not value these titles and ensigns of
honour, yet would not refuse them, because they were tokens of his
prince’s good-will: but we have reason to think that he received them
with a smile, foreseeing how soon they would all wither with him that
bestowed them. They were like Jonah’s gourd, which came up in a night
and perished in a night, and therefore it was folly for him to be
exceedingly glad of them.
| Daniel Deals Plainly with Belshazzar; Interpreting of the Writing on the Wall. | B. C. 538. |
|
|
|
30 In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans
slain.
31 And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about
threescore and two years old.
Here is,
1. The death of the king. Reason enough he had to tremble, for he was
just falling into the hands of the king of terrors,
v. 30.
In that night, when his heart was merry with wine, the besiegers
broke into the city, aimed at the palace; there they found the king,
and gave him his death’s wound. He could not find any place so secret
as to conceal him, or so strong as to protect him. Heathen writers
speak of Cyrus’s taking Babylon by surprise, with the assistance of two
deserters that showed him the best way into the city. And it was
foretold what a consternation it would be to the court,
Note, Death comes as a snare upon those whose hearts are overcharged
with surfeiting and drunkenness.
2. The transferring of the kingdom into other hands. From the head of
gold we now descend to the breast and arms of silver. Darius the
Mede took the kingdom in partnership with, and by the consent of,
Cyrus, who had conquered it,
They were partners in war and conquest, and so they were in dominion,
Notice is taken of his age, that he was now sixty-two years old, for
which reason Cyrus, who was his nephew, gave him the precedency. Some
observe that being now sixty-two years old, in the last year of the
captivity, he was born in the eighth year of it, and that was the year
when Jeconiah was carried captive and all the nobles, &c. See
Just at that time when the most fatal stroke was given was a prince
born that in process of time should avenge Jerusalem upon Babylon, and
heal the wound that was now given. Thus deep are the counsels of God
concerning his people, thus kind are his designs towards them.
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
|
Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download |
Copyright 2008. Bibles Net. Com. All Rights Reserved.