“And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven” (Daniel 5:22-23, ESV).

You have certainly heard and probably used the expression, “the writing is on the wall” or “the handwriting is on the wall.” The phrase is often used whenever an inevitable result or imminent danger has become apparent. In Daniel 5, what should have been apparent and inevitable to King Belshazzar of Babylon seemed to allude him.

Belshazzar’s feast in Daniel 5 took place years, possibly decades, after the events of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4 and under the kingship of a different king of Babylon. King Belshazzar was once thought to be a fictional king because ancient records named Nabonidus as Babylon’s last king. Later cuneiform discoveries showed that Belshazzar was Nabonidus’s son and served as co-regent while Nabonidus was away from Babylon.

Belshazzar also could have been Nebuchadnezzar II’s grandson through his mother though this is not certain. Daniel’s ascribing him as Nebuchadnezzar’s “son” in vs. 22 is consistent with ancient usage where the term often means descendant or royal successor.

In this chapter King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of all those gathered for the feast. Belshazzar commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem be brought in so that he and his lords, his wives, and his concubines could drink from them (vs. 1-3). Basically, they were indulging in a drunken revelry and debasing sacred Jewish temple vessels by using them as wine goblets.