The fall of Babylon began with a friendship and ended with a finger. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, God raised up two kings to destroy the Chaldean empire: Darius of Media and Cyrus of Persia. Cyrus married Darius's daughter, binding them into an alliance, and together they marched against Belshazzar, king of Babylon.
The first battles went badly for the alliance. The Chaldeans launched a devastating night attack, and the Medes fled in confusion. Only Cyrus and his Persians held their ground. The casualties among the Medes and Persians were enormous. But Belshazzar made the fatal mistake of celebrating too soon. Believing he had won, he threw a great feast for his thousand princes and rewarded them with silver and gold.
As the wine flowed, Belshazzar grew drunk and reckless. He ordered his servants to bring the golden vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had plundered from the Temple in Jerusalem. These were the sacred vessels of God's own house. Belshazzar, his princes, his wives, and his concubines drank wine from them, defiling what had been consecrated to the God of Israel.
God's response was immediate. He sent a scribe from His throne. A disembodied hand appeared by the lamplight and wrote on the palace wall in red ink, using Hebrew characters but Aramaic words: "He thought, He weighed, He separated." Belshazzar saw only the fingers, and the sight was enough to make every bone in his body tremble. The message meant that God had measured Belshazzar's kingdom, weighed it, and found it wanting. That night, Darius and Cyrus attacked again. This time Babylon fell, and Belshazzar's kingdom was divided between the Medes and the Persians, exactly as the writing had declared.
LXVII. (1) When God had visited upon Babylon all
that He spake to His servants Isaiah and Jeremiah, the
prophets, on behalf of Jerusalem, He raised up against
them two mighty kings: Darius, King of Media, and
Cyrus, King of Persia. And Cyrus entered into close
friendship with Darius by taking his daughter to wife, so
that they jointly rebelled against Belshazzar, King of the
Chaldeans. This was the commencement of many fierce
battles. At the outset the Chaldeans were victorious; but
many fell on either side, and the Chaldeans fleeing, Cyrus
and Darius pursued them until a distance of one day's
journey from Babylon, and smote them and cut them to
pieces. There Cyrus and Darius encamped with all their
armies, and when the king Belshazzar saw them he sent
out all the host of his mighty men — a thousand princes and
the troops that were in the temple, a numerous and powerful
band. At twilight all these marched out of Babylon, con-
tinuing their march during the whole night. But at the
208 [LXVII. 2
break of morn they began to attack the camp of Darius
and Cyrus, which at the onset became bewildered, and the
camp of Media fled in confusion; but Cyrus and his men
braced themselves up to fight against the Chaldeans, and
prevented them from following the Median camp. In the
night, when the battle had ceased, the slain of the Medes
and Persians were found to be very numerous.
(2) On that same day, as the princes of Belshazzar
saw that they had gained a victory, they came before
King Belshazzar full of victory and strength. The king
made a great feast for them, and many presents of silver
and gold were given to them; and the king rejoiced with
his 1,000 princes, and sat down to eat and drink with
them. They prolonged the banquet until night. Now,
Belshazzar had drunk too much, and while he was in a
state of intoxication he ordered the golden vessels which had
been in the temple of our God at Jerusalem to be brought
to him — viz., those holy vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had
seized when he exiled the Jews from Jerusalem to Babylon.
He then defiled the holy vessels by drinking wine out of
them, together with his 1,000 princes, his wives, and his
concubines.
(3) But when our God beheld this profanation. He was
angry and jealous (zealous) for His vessels, so He sent
from His throne a scribe to write a severe rebuke for the
king, and to acquaint him with the judgment which our
God had decreed concerning his life and his kingdom.
The scribe accordingly wrote upon the wall in red ink by
the lamp of the king the following: 'He thought, He
weighed. He separated.' The letters were written in
Hebrew characters, but the writing was Aramaic. When
the king saw the fingers writing — the other parts of the
body he did not see, for the fingers were terrible and
beautiful — he became bewildered and very much afraid,
so that every limb of his body, his heart, and his very
bones trembled.
