Head of Gold Shattered
The events recorded in the fifth chapter occurred on the eve of the city’s conquest by the “Medes and Persians.” That night, the king hosted a feast “for a thousand of his lords” who “tasted wine” from the vessels looted from the Jerusalem Temple by Nebuchadnezzar, all while praising the false gods of the empire.
At the height of the feast, the king
witnessed a hand that was inscribing words on the plaster wall of his palace with
letters not recognized by anyone present. Terrified, he summoned the Chaldean astrologers
and soothsayers to interpret it, promising great rewards for the man who could interpret
the script.
As before, not one of Babylon’s “wise
men” was able to comply, and so, Daniel was summoned.
Through this event, God pronounced the
imminent end of the Babylonian kingdom. It would be reassigned to the “Medes
and Persians,” and that very night, the king was slain, the city captured,
and the “kingdom of the Medes and Persians” became the newest
incarnation of the WoRLD EMPIRE.
BELSHAZZAR’S CELEBRATION
The story opens with no reference to any
preceding ruler. The last Babylonian king was Nabonidus, the father
of Belshazzar (reigned 556-539 B.C.). Belshazzar ruled as his regent over the
city of Babylon.
Belshazzar gave a feast for thousands, and he,
his princes, wives, concubines, and guests all drank from the vessels that had
been removed from the Jerusalem Temple decades earlier. As they
drank, they “praised the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone,”
a sacrilege severe even by pagan standards.
When Babylonian forces conquered a
foreign city, its idols and sacred artifacts were treated with respect and
transported to Babylon for safekeeping. Foreign gods were added
to the growing pantheon of the kingdom. Defeat did not prove that another
nation’s gods were nonexistent, only that Babylon’s gods were more powerful.
In the same hour, a hand began to “write
over against the lampstand upon the plaster of the wall.” Belshazzar’s sin
was not debauchery, but sacrilege. The vessels from which they
drank had been dedicated to ritual service in Yahweh’s sanctuary.
Six materials are listed and linked to
false gods - Gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone. The number six is not
coincidental, it being key to the sexagesimal or base-60 numeric
system of Mesopotamia. Additionally, in that culture, it was a sacred number
used in numerological-based rites of divination - (Daniel 3:1-3).
The same three metals that formed part of
the great image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream are included in the list - gold,
silver, and brass. That earlier image was shattered by a “stone cut out
of the mountain without hands” and its metallic components were ground into
dust - (Daniel 2:31-45).
DANIEL’S PRONOUNCEMENT
None of the hastily summoned astrologers
and soothsayers could interpret the writing. Thus, as a last resort, Daniel was
called. He declared that he would interpret the writing regardless of any gifts
or honors from the king.
He reminded the king how Nebuchadnezzar had
received “the kingdom, greatness, glory and majesty” from God, including
authority over all peoples and nations. When his heart became arrogant, he was
removed from the throne until he learned that “the Most High-God rules in
the kingdom of men and sets up over it whomever he will” - (Daniel 5:18-23).
In contrast to Nebuchadnezzar, the new “head
of gold,” Belshazzar, failed to humble his heart. Instead, he profaned the sacred
vessels of Yahweh. Rather than honor the “Most-High,” he praised the false
gods and idols “that neither see nor hear nor know.”
Daniel then read the supernatural writing: Mene,
Mene, Tekel U-pharin. The words are related to monetary weights. Mene is
the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew measure “talent” or mina,
worth approximately sixty shekels. Mene is
repeated, and each Aramaic word has a double application. Tekel is
the equivalent of shekel but also denotes something “light”
in contrast to what is “heavy.”
Pharsin or persin means “divided” or “half-pieces,”
a reference to the “half-mina.” It also points to the two “halves” of
the Persian empire, the “Medes and Persians.” In the
interpretation, parsin is read as peres from the
three consonants that form its stem, p-r-s, which means to “divide,”
but it also is a wordplay on “Persia” or pharas - (“your kingdom
is divided and given to the Medes and Persians”).
Thus, Babylon was conquered by the “Medes
and Persians.” Previously, Cyrus the Great had annexed Media to
his empire. Though Persia became the dominant power in the partnership, in Daniel,
his realm is always identified as the “kingdom,” singular, of the “Medes
and the Persians.”
While this description accurately reflects the historical reality, the use of the singular also indicates that the World Empire had shifted from Babylon to Persia.
Despite the predicted demise of his
realm, Belshazzar ordered Daniel arrayed with purple and gold and proclaimed the
“third ruler in the kingdom.” That same night, the “Medes and
Persians” captured the city and slew its king. And thus, the sovereignty of
Yahweh was imposed through the prophet’s word.
Just as he declared, the World
Empire was transferred from Babylon to the next kingdom, and the king’s death
and the city’s fall validated his words. Through his prophetic declaration, the
“stone cut out of the mountain without hands” shattered the golden
head from Nebuchadnezzar’s earlier dream - (Daniel 2:45).
In the book of Revelation, the
description of the Babylonians praising the “gods of gold, silver, brass,
iron, wood, and stone” is applied to the “inhabitants of the earth”
who refuse to repent despite the plagues unleashed by the “seven trumpets.”
They “repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship
demons, and the idols of gold, and of
silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see,
nor hear, nor walk” - (Revelation
9:20).