Daniel stood before King Belshazzar of Babylon and delivered the verdict no ruler wants to hear. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ben Solomon and translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, Daniel rebuked the king for defiling the sacred vessels of the Temple. God had sent an angel to inscribe a message on the palace wall in Hebrew characters but Aramaic words: "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin."
The meaning was devastating. God had "numbered" the years of Belshazzar's kingdom and found them complete. The seventy years of Israel's captivity had ended. The king had been "weighed" and found wanting. His kingdom would be "taken away" and handed to the Medes and Persians.
Daniel did not stop there. He reminded Belshazzar that his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had been humbled by God, forced to wander among wild beasts until he acknowledged the power of heaven. Belshazzar had learned nothing from this. After defeating Darius and Cyrus in battle, he thanked his idols of silver and gold rather than his Creator. Then he compounded the insult by drinking wine from the holy Temple vessels alongside his princes, wives, and concubines.
When the court heard Daniel's interpretation, terror seized them. The princes fled and trampled each other at the gates. Belshazzar collapsed onto his bed and fell into a death-like sleep. That night, a doorkeeper who had served Nebuchadnezzar drew the king's own sword from beneath his pillows and severed his head. He carried it through the darkness to Darius and Cyrus. The two kings prostrated themselves before the God of heaven, vowed to free His people and rebuild the Temple, then marched into Babylon and reduced it to wasteland like Sodom and Gomorrah. They divided the Chaldean empire between them by lot.
LXVIII. (1) Daniel was then brought before the king to
read and interpret the writing, and he said to the king:
* Thou hast acted very foolishly, m that thou hast defiled
the vessels of the temple of our God. Therefore our God,
being zealous for His children and for His sanctuary, sent
an angel to write these words. And these are the words
which he has written, ' Shekel,' i.e., the enemy of the
Lord, ' has been weighed in the balance and been found
wanting. He will therefore rend the kingdom from His
enemy, and will give it to Darius and Cyrus, who have
given thee battle. Between them the kingdom shall be
divided.'
(2) And the princes of the king heard this explanation
from Daniel and that he reproved the king, saying, ' Hearken
to me, I pray thee. King Belshazzar, and mark and under-
stand my words. Didst thou not know that the Lord God
of the heavens made thy father great, and raised him over
all the kingdoms of the earth; that He caused him to rule,
in His greatness, over the holy Land, over the kingdom of
priests and the holy nation; and that he (Nebuchadnezzar)
treated them with great cruelty; that he shed their blood
as water, burnt the holy temple with fire, and sent the whole
of God's inheritance into captivity to Babylon ? That then
his heart waxed mighty and his spirit proud, so that he said,
"My hand is exalted, and my power has stood by me";
that he did not remember that the God of the world, who
exalteth and maketh humble, had delivered all these things
into his hands; nor did he think of this until the Lord
humbled him by making him wander among the wild
beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens; and
not until he believed that the Lord God of heaven is
He who slayeth and bringeth to life was he restored
again to his palace ? And thou, Belshazzar, hast received
thy father's kingdom by the will of the God of heaven, and
reignest over all the land in the same manner as thy father.
(3) ' When thy two vassals, Darius and Cyrus, rebelled
and made a conspiracy against thee, and went to battle
against thy mighty army, thou didst send forth thy
warriors to subdue them, and they returned to thee
exceedingly elated with strength and glory; but thou
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didst not give thanks to thy Creator, who gave thee the
very breath of thy hfe, but to thy idols of silver and gold,
of iron and brass, of clay and earthenware, which cannot
rescue nor save, which can do neither evil nor good. And
thou didst burn bright the lamp for thy 1,000 warriors and
princes. Then didst thou send for the holy vessels, which
were sanctified to the God of heaven, who breathed into
thee the breath of life, and in whose hand is thy spirit, to
slay or to keep alive. And thou didst defile His vessels by
drinking out of them, together with all thy servants,
princes, wives, and concubines, and didst sing praises
to thy idols. For this the Lord's anger was kindled
against thee and thy people, since thou hast foolishly
done this. He therefore sent His scribe to write down upon
the wall of thy house thy end, and the end of thy kingdom.
Behold the writing is written in Hebrew characters, but the
language is Aramaic. The words are " Mene, Mene, Tekel,
Upharsin," which means that God has " numbered " the
years of thy kingdom, which have been found completed;
the seventy years (of the captivity) having come to an end.
Thou hast been " weighed," and been found wanting.
Therefore thy kingdom shall be " taken away" from thee,
and given to the Medes and Persians.'
(4) When the king, the princes and the dignitaries of the
kingdom heard this interpretation from Daniel, they were
all greatly afraid, every one of them, their heart beat
violently, and they were alarmed and trembled, and the
king, being seized with dreadful pains through Daniel's
words, fell upon his bed, sad and troubled, and mourning
bitterly, while the rest of the princes returned to their
houses in fear. When they went out through the gate
they were in their excitement crushed and trampled on,
and the king remained alone with his messengers and his
household, and, being in great excitement and bewildered,
he fell into a deep sleep, and slumbered like one of the dead
through his fright and trembling. (5) Now, there was in
the bedroom of the king a doorkeeper, one of the old ser-
vants of Nebuchadnezzar, who was much honoured and
respected. Meditating in his heart, he said, ' Did not
Daniel interpret all Nebuchadnezzar's dreams? and did
not all his words come true, so that nothing he prophesied
failed to be realized ? Now he has told the king what is
decreed concerning him, for the spirit of God is with him,
and he does not lie. Why, therefore, should I not go, and,
severing Belshazzar's head, run with it to Cyrus and
Darius, the Kings of Media and Persia, and thereby find
favour in their eyes ?' And as he thought, so he did.
Kising hastily in the twilight, he drew the sword from
beneath the king's pillows, and with it smote Belshazzar,
severing his head. He wandered all through the night until
daybreak, and then went to the two kings with the head of
Belshazzar in his hand.
(6) But when they saw it, both they and all the men
trembled and gazed in fear at each other, as well as all the
army. On asking the man for an explanation, he related
all that Daniel had told Belshazzar, how he had defiled
the holy vessels of the temple, and thus kindled the anger
of the God of the heavens, who sent a messenger to write
upon the wall in red ink opposite the candlestick. ' When I
heard Daniel tell these things, I knew that it was all true
and that nothing would fail to come to pass. On account
of this I planned and hastened to perform this deed which
now your eyes behold.'
(7) When the two kings heard the words of the ser-
vant they feared the wrath of the God of heaven, and
consequently humbled, prostrated and bowed themselves
before the Lord of all things, saying, ' We know that Thou
alone art God over all the hosts of heaven and over all the
kingdoms of the earth, who removest and establishest
kings, and who doest whatever Thou desirest. Thou
knowest that this Belshazzar, the wicked grandson of the
wicked Nebuchadnezzar, acted wickedly, and Thou hast
therefore visited him to destroy him in the wrath of
Thy anger in that he defiled the vessels of Thy holy
sanctuary. Thou didst hand him over to be slaughtered
by this chamberlain that his head may be brought before
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us. We now give thanks unto Thee, 0 God of the heavens,
for the wonders which Thou hast wrought. If Thou wilt
dehver his land into our possession and the valiant, mighty
men thereof, we shall wreak vengeance upon them to
satisfy the wrath of Thine anger. Then Thou wilt help us
to free Thy servants from their captivity, to build Thy
holy temple in Jerusalem, and to gather together the out-
casts of Thy people, that they may once again worship
Thee alone.' Having said this, they made a feast and
rejoiced for three days.
(8) Then, marching into Babylon, they captured it, and,
overthrowing the fortresses, slew the warriors at the edge
of the sword, ripped up their women with child, slaughtered
their old men in the streets, strangled their young men with
ropes and dragged them with their horses along the streets,
their virgins they trampled to death, and their young
children they dashed against the rocks. (9) Thus God
avenged the blood of His servants that was shed by the
Babylonians and Chaldeans, and took vengeance for His
city and His temple. These two kings overran all the
streets with their mighty army, and, overthrowing all their
palaces, burnt their most precious things, and, blowing
upon their trumpets, raised a loud cry so that the earth
was cleft asunder at their noise, and they said: ' Where
are ye, ye mighty men of Babylon and ye valiant men, ye
sinners of the whole earth. The battle is no longer yours.'
They then set fire to everything that came before them until
they rendered the whole of Babylon a waste land, like
Sodom and Gomorrah, according to the word which God
spake to His servants the prophets. (10) After this the
two kings divided the whole kingdom of the Chaldeans by
lot, so that Darius took for his portion Babylon, with all
its inhabitants, and the great temple of the palace which
Nebuchadnezzar had built; and Darius sat upon the throne
of Belshazzar. Thus, while the great Babylon, with all its
inhabitants, together with the land of Media, fell to the
lot of Darius, the land of the Chaldeans, Assyria and Persia
fell to the lot of Cyrus.
