The Book of Daniel

The story of Belshazzar and the writing on the wall appears in Chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel, which tells us that Belshazzar was the son of King Nebuchadnezzar and King of Babylon. In fact, although he probably was descended from Nebuchadnezzar, the most likely story is that Nebuchadnezzar was Belshazzar's maternal grandfather.

History tells us that Belshazzar was the son of Nabidius, who was King of Babylon, but that Nabidius went into exile in 550 BC and made Belshazzar his co–regent.

For reasons that are not explained, Belshazzar celebrated a great feast for a thousand of his grandees. During the feast, and under the influence of wine, Belshazzar called for the vessels from the temple of Jerusalem (which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC) to be brought so that he and his guests, and his wives and concubines, might drink from them while praising the Babylonian gods.

There was obviously no shortage of drinking vessels in Belshazzar's palace; his request was a deliberate act of contempt by the pagan king in defiance of Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, who had inspired the prophecies of Babylon's downfall.

"In the same hour," says the Bible, "came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace". Belshazzar was severely shaken: "the joints of his loins loosed, and his knees smote one against another." He called upon all his wise men to provide an interpretation of the written message, but they were unable to do so. The queen, however, is confident that Daniel, an exiled Israelite taken from Jerusalem, who had served in high office under Nebuchadnezzar, would be able to interpret the writing; and sure enough Daniel, inspired by God, revealed the meaning of the miraculous message.

Rejecting offers of reward, Daniel warns the king of the folly of his arrogant blasphemy before reading the text. He tells Belshazzar that God had given his father Nebuchadnezzar "a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour", for which "all people, nations, and languages, trembled before him"; but "when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him". God had punished Nebuchadnezzar for his sinfulness, but Belshazzar hadn't learnt the lesson; he was behaving in exactly the same way.

Daniel then proceeds to interpret the text, which scholars tell us was written in Aramaic. The Bible gives the actual words as "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN". Wikipedia tells us that:

"these words are known Aramaic names of measures of currency: MENE, a mina (from the root meaning "to count"), TEKEL, a spelling of shekel (from the root meaning "to weigh"), PERES, half a mina (from the root meaning "to divide," but additionally resembling the word for "Persia") ... The meaning that Daniel decrypts from these words is based on passive verbs corresponding to the measure names, "numbered, weighed, divided."

Daniel's interpretation combines these two sets of meanings, which one website – quora.com – describes as "a (non-humorous) pun". The Bible spells it out: "MENE: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL: Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES: Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." (UPHARSIN and PERES are apparently different ways of referring to the Persians.)

True to his word, and despite the disastrous portent of Daniel's interpretation, Belshazzar proceeded to invest Daniel as "the third ruler in the kingdom" (presumably after Nabidius and Belshazzar himself).

The Bible then tells us curtly that "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom." According to Jewish tradition, Cyrus (leader of the Persians) and Darius (leader of the Medians) were employed as doorkeepers at Belshazzar's palace. Belshazzar, greatly alarmed at Daniel's interpretation of the mysterious handwriting on the wall, and concerned that someone with murderous intent might enter the palace in disguise, ordered his doorkeepers to behead anyone who tried to force an entrance that night, even should such a person claim to be the king himself.

During the night, overcome by sickness, Belshazzar left the palace unobserved through a rear exit. On his return, the doorkeepers naturally refused to admit him – despite his protestations that he was the king. True to their orders, Cyrus and Darius grasped a heavy ornament forming part of a candelabrum, and with it they shattered the skull of their royal master.

The Medes, or Medians, lived in what is now north–west Iran. At the time of Belshazzar's feast they were just emerging, along with the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Egyptians and others, from centuries of Assyrian rule. Darius however is probably a fictitious character; he may in fact be the same person as Cyrus, known as Cyrus the Great, who was the founder of the Persian Empire.

Chapter 6 of the Book of Daniel tells us that Daniel was raised to high office by his new royal master, Darius the Mede, but that his jealous rivals tricked Darius into issuing a decree that for thirty days no prayers should be addressed to any god or man but Darius himself; any who broke this decree were to be thrown to the lions. Daniel continued to pray to the God of Israel, and the king was forced, much against his will, to condemn Daniel to death. Hoping for Daniel's deliverance, he had him cast into the pit.

At daybreak the king hurried to the place, and asked anxiously if God had saved his friend. Daniel replied that his God had sent an angel to close the jaws of the lions, "because I was found blameless before him." The king commanded that those who had conspired against Daniel should be thrown to the lions in his place, along with their wives and children, and that all the people of the world should tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.

The story of Daniel in the lions' den reflects the one about the fiery furnace, which is told in Chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel. In this, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (three young Jewish men, whom king Nebuchadnezzar – father of Belshazzar, according to the Bible – had appointed to high office in Babylon) are thrown into a fiery furnace after refusing to bow down to the king's image. The three are preserved from harm, and the king sees four men walking in the flames – "the form of the fourth is like the Son of God". On seeing this, Nebuchadnezzar brought the youths out of the flames and promoted them to even higher office, decreeing that any who spoke against their God should be torn limb from limb.

It is generally accepted that the first six chapters of the Book of Daniel originated as a collection of folk tales among the Jewish community in Babylon and Mesopotamia, in the Persian and early Hellenistic periods (5th to 3rd centuries BC). Chapter 3 is the only one in the book in which Daniel himself doesn't appear. Modern scholarship agrees (according to Wikipedia) that Daniel is a legendary figure; it is possible that his name was chosen for the hero of the book because of his reputation as a wise seer in Hebrew tradition.