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BELSHAZZAR
The story of the writing on the wall that heralded the fall of Babylon is well known to most readers of the Bible and has passed into current language in the proverb "the writing on the wall". The man who occupies the centre of the stage in the story was the last to exercise royal power in the history of the Babylonian empire, Belshazzar the king. This ruler takes his place with Sennacherib the Assyrian as one of the two who publicly defied God and met retribution.
Until a little over a century ago, the name of Belshazzar was unknown outside Bible history. None of the old classical historians mention him; the only ancient writers who do are Josephus and Jerome, both using the Greek form of his name, Baithasar, clearly taking their information from the Bible. On this account 19th century critics of the Book of Daniel dismissed the account in Dan. 5 as fiction. "Belshazzar, history knows no such king!" wrote one scholar of the early 19th century. Then in 1854 the Assyriologist, Sir Henry Rawlinson, set out to decipher some tab1ets discovered in the ruins of Ur of the Chaldees and found they were authentic records of the fall of Babylon, made at the time by order of Cyrus the Persian, who captured the city. These records contained the name of Belshazzar and made it clear that at the time of the fall of the city he was ruling as regent in the place of his father, who was absent in distant parts. So the Book of Daniel was proved to be correct in this respect and the critics' opinions unjustified.
The Bible account in Dan.5 and the tablets confirm each other and the latter explain several allusions in the former. Published and made available to scholars and students over the period 1882-1929, some five hundred different tablets afford a very clear picture of the last days of Babylon.
Belshazzar was the eldest son of Nabonidus the last true king of Babylon. Nabonidus reigned for seventeen years but during the final ten years was mainly absent from Babylon with his army, building a new city and fortress at Tema, four hundred miles away in the heart of Arabia. He appointed his son, the Crown Prince, to reign as regent; this is why Daniel refers to Belshazzar as king. Daniel never mentions Nabonidus and there is probably a reason for this. Nabonidus was not of the blood royal. He was the son of a Babylonian nobleman and had married Nitocris the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. By devious means he had eliminated other contenders for the throne and some seven years after the great king's death had secured it for himself. Daniel, loyal to his old master and friend Nebuchadnezzar, probably refused to recognise this up-start's right to the throne, but did recognize that of Belshazzar through his mother Nitocris.
Two allusions in Dan. 5 are illuminated by this fact. Belshazzar promised Daniel that if he could interpret the meaning of the mystic writing he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. His father the king was first, he himself second, and so Daniel could only be third. The other is that the queen of v 10, who came in to advise Belshazzar and was able to tell him about Daniel and his services in the days of Nebuchadnezzar was obviously his mother, Nitocris the queen-mother. Some forty years earlier she would have known Daniel well when he was her father's Chief Minister. (The allusions in this narrative to Belshazzar being the "son" of Nebuchadnezzar should be read "grandson". The Bible makes no distinction between sons and grandsons, the same word serving for both; see Gen. 29.5 and 1Kings 19.16 for similar examples, Laban said to be son of Nahor and Jehu son of Nimshi whereas both were in reality grandsons.)
Many tablets have been found to be commercial documents signed by Belshazzar himself . He would appear to have been a shrewd business man, a good administrator of government, a capable military leader and a great devotee of the Babylonian gods. He is also indicated as being very much a "man about town" and given to high living. As this latter he is presented in the 5th chapter of Daniel.
"Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand." This was hardly the time for a feast. Cyrus the Persian had been ravaging the adjacent lands for about six or seven years, adding to his territories, and was at this moment at Opis, only some sixty miles from Babylon, advancing swiftly. The troops of Gubaru, the Persian General, were even now encircling the city while the feast proceeded. Nabonidus was out in the field somewhere with his army, leaving Belshazzar to defend the city. Heedless of the threat and oblivious to the danger of his position, the young prince caroused with his companions and his womenfolk. Growing more reckless as the wine flowed, he gave orders that the sacred vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Solomon's Temple half a century previously and placed in the idol Temple of Marduk in Babylon should be brought to the palace and used by the guests. This, even for Babylonians, was sacrilege and in his right mind even Belshazzar would have hesitated to do such a thing. The cups and goblets brought, they were filled and used to do honour to the gods of Babylon. In that moment there appeared the form of a man's hand writing on the wall and the revelry abruptly ceased. "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin" "Numbered, numbered, weighed and divided"! To the assembled company the words conveyed no meaning, but the mystery of the occurrence filled them with foreboding and terror. Daniel was called to the scene at the instigation of Queen Nitocris. His knowledge of the Divine programme enabled him to interpret the mystery, and He told those assembled that the political power of Babylon would pass to Persia. "God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it. You are weighed in the balances, and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians".
The Persians were already within the gates.
According to some of the classical historians they found the entire city given
over to revelry and the gates unguarded.
Xenophon, who is not a very reliable historian, says that Gubaru made his way to
the palace and "slew the impious king", without mentioning names. This is
confirmation of the Bible account so far as it goes, for Nabonidus is known to
have survived and been appointed governor of the Persian province of Carmania by
Cyrus after the fall of Babylon. None of the tablets so far discovered say how
or when Belshazzar met his death but none of them mention his name after the
fall of the city. Nothing therefore impugns the accuracy of the Scripture
account. The picture in Daniel 5 is that of a capable and active man who because
of a fatal weakness for dissolute living failed his country at a crucial moment
and lost the empire his forebears had built up. Unwittingly he became an
instrument in the hands of God. It was decreed that Babylon should fall, and
Isaiah nearly two centuries earlier had foretold the name of the man, Cyrus, who
would overthrow it. Now that the time had come, by the providence of the Most
High the destiny of the doomed empire was in the hands of a man of straw, too
weak to withstand the resolute conqueror who came against him. And the very name
of the instrument dropped out of history, preserved only in the writings of one
who, in that festal hall, had pronounced God's judgment upon him.
AOH
