Глава 5

1–9. The feast of Belshazzar, the appearance of a hand that inscribed mysterious writings on the wall, the powerlessness of the Babylonian sages to read them. 10–16. Invitation on the advice of King Daniel's mother. 17–29. The prophet's speech to Belshazzar and his explanation of the mysterious inscription. 30–31. Death of Belshazzar and accession of Darius the Mede. Daniel 5:1. King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine before the eyes of thousands. According to the book. Prophet Daniel, the last Babylonian king was Belshazzar (Belshazzar), son of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan.5:2, 11, 13, 18), who reigned for more than two years (Dan 8.1) and was killed on the night of the fall of Babylon (Dan.5:30). But among Nebuchadnezzar’s successors to the throne, as they are listed by the Chaldean historian Berosus, there is no Belshazzar. He calls Evilmerodach the successor son of Nebuchadnezzar, and dates the conquest of Babylon to the 17th year of Nabonidus, unknown to the prophet Daniel. Likewise, according to Herodotus, the last Babylonian king was not Belshazzar, but Labinetus. Such a discrepancy between biblical and extra-biblical testimony, which gave some exegetes a reason to deny the authenticity of the legend of the book. Daniel, makes others strive for their reconciliation. Until recently, the most natural and surest means to this was considered to be Belshazzar’s identification of the book of the prophet Daniel with any of the successors of Nebuchadnezzar mentioned by Berosus. The first attempt in this way was made by Josephus, according to whom the last Babylonian king was Belshazzar, “called Nabonidus by the Babylonians.” The famous historian Niebuhr held the same view, arguing that the name Belshazzar is an honorary title of Nabonidus, as well as Michaelis, Cornelius, Lapide, Calmette, Knobel, Ewald, among the domestic exegetes Bukharev. Others - Kranichfeld, Kliphot, Keil and Delich, Geferniik, Gufman, Smirnov, based on the name of Belshazzar “son of Nebuchadnezzar”, identified him with the actual son of this latter - Evilmerodach, who reigned for two years, and, finally, still others - with Lavosoardach. As for the consistency of these views, it is very insignificant. Thus, the identification of Belshazzar with Evilmerodach and Lavosoardach is contradicted by the consideration that neither one nor the other was the last Babylonian king, as Belshazzar is in the prophet Daniel. His death and the division of the Babylonian empire between the Medes and Persians seem to be inextricably linked events (Dan. 5:30–31). Equally unacceptable is the identification of Belshazzar with Nabonidus. Firstly, neither the prophet Daniel nor Berosus speaks about the double name that the last Babylonian king supposedly bore; secondly, the fate of Belshazzar and Nabonidus, as presented by the prophet Daniel and Berosus, is completely different. The first was killed on the night of the capture of Babylon (Dan. 5:30), and the second, defeated by Cyrus, was sent by him from Babylonia to Carmania, where he died. Having abandoned all these attempts as obviously untenable, the latest literature about the book of the prophet Daniel is of the opinion that Belshazzar mentioned in it is the real, real name of the last Babylonian king - the name of the son of Nabonidus. This view is based on wedge-shaped inscriptions from the time of this latter. In one of them, discovered by the Englishman Loftus in the ruins of Ur of the Chaldeans, Nabonidus turns to the god Sin with the following request: “Save me, Nabonidus, king of Babylon, from any sin against your bright deity and give me a long life as my inheritance, and direct the heart of Belshazzar, my firstborn son, my heir, so that he honors your bright deity, and let him not go he is in the path of sin, but let him enjoy the happiness of life.” In another inscription of the same king, the following phrase appears twice: “May I, Nabonidus, king of Babylon, admirer of your bright deity, enjoy the happiness of life, and Belshazzar, my firstborn son, continue his days, may he not deviate into sin.” Based on these inscriptions, Rawlinson recognizes Belshazzar, mentioned in them, as one person with Belshazzar in the book of the prophet Daniel. “The eldest son of Nabonidus is called, he says, Belshar-etzar, a name that is abbreviated in the book of Daniel to Belshatzar, just as the name Nergal-sharetzor was turned by the Greeks into Neriglissor.” The identity of names alone does not, of course, indicate the identity of personalities. But the complete possibility of identifying the biblical Belshazzar with Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidus, of the wedge-shaped inscriptions, according to the exegetes, is not subject to any doubt. And first of all, judging by the promise to make Daniel a third person in the state for explaining the mysterious inscription (Dan.5:16), Belshazzar was not the supreme king of Babylon; he himself occupied second place, and therefore could only promise Daniel third. In other words, Belshazzar of the book of Daniel acts as a co-ruler: individual rulers gave second place in the kingdom for merit (Esth. 10:3; 2 Ezra 3:7; 2 Ezra 4:42). Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidus, was invested with exactly the same power. According to Vigouroux, the text of the so-called Kirov Cylinder represents him as a vice-king: he stands at the head of an army, surrounded by high dignitaries, in the fortresses of the country of Akkad (northern part of Babylonia), while his father voluntarily retires from the affairs of government for several years. Likewise, Rawlinson, drawing attention to some of Nabonidus’s inscriptions, which are limited to one prayer for the salvation of his son Belshazzar, argues that the mention of a royal prince instead of the king himself represents a completely unprecedented phenomenon, and its only explanation is that Belshazzar took part in the reign of his father during his lifetime. As for the co-government of Belshazzar, its reasons are thought to be as follows. Nabonidus, being a usurper, in order to strengthen the power of his descendants during his lifetime, declared his son king, born to him by the daughter or granddaughter of Nebuchadnezzar, whom he married with the same intention of retaining the Babylonian throne (Viguru, Knabenbauer). Appointed co-ruler with his father, Belshazzar in the last years of his reign is already a real king. In view of the conquest of Cyrus of Persia, Nabonidus was forced to spend the end of his reign in constant absence from Babylon, first as an ally of Croesus of Lydia, and then as a defender of his country on its borders. Under such circumstances, the transfer of power over Babylon into the hands of Belshazzar, who was left here, was quite natural. Then, according to Xenophon, Nabonidus, defeated by Cyrus, returned not to Babylon, but to Borzippa. The ruler of the first, the arbiter of his destinies turned out to be Belshazzar, as the book of the prophet Daniel says. The feast arranged by Belshazzar fell during the siege of Babylon by the Medes and Persians (Dan. 5:28, 30–31). In accordance with this, Herodotus says that the Babylonians, during the capture of their capital by Cyrus, feasted merrily; all the people indulged in dancing and fun. The king's carelessness, which clearly appears in this circumstance - he feasts with the nobles at critical moments - finds its explanation primarily in his hope for the strength of the Babylonian walls (see explanation Dan. 4:27). They seemed impregnable not only to him, but even to Cyrus, who, according to Herodotus, doubted the possibility of taking Babylon by force and resorted to cunning. His youth played no less important role in Belshazzar’s carelessness. According to Berosus, Nabonidus reigned for 17 years. And if his marriage to a relative of Nebuchadnezzar, who bore him Belshazzar, falls in the first year of his reign, then at the time of the conquest of Babylon this latter could not have been more than 16 years old. According to Assyro-Babylonian images of feasting kings, feasts consisted of drinking, not food: feasters are usually represented only as drinking. The prophet Daniel describes Belshazzar's feast with the same features. On the same monuments, women are visible among the feasters. The presence of the latter at the feasts of the ancient Persians is also noted in the book. Esther (Esth.1:9, etc.). Daniel 5:2. Having tasted the wine, Belshazzar ordered the gold and silver vessels to be brought, which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple of Jerusalem, so that the king, his nobles, his wives and his concubines could drink from them. Dan.5:3. Then they brought golden vessels, which were taken from the sanctuary of the house of God in Jerusalem; and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. Dan.5:4. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, copper, iron, wood and stone. Proceeding as usual, Belshazzar's feast unexpectedly ended in mockery of God, expressed in the transformation of vessels dedicated to Him into feast bowls and in songs of praise in honor of the pagan gods. The first said that in the eyes of believers, the God of Israel does not deserve any respect - His vessels were taken for low use, the second further strengthened and emphasized this idea - they blasphemously contrasted the power of the pagan gods with the powerlessness of the Jewish God. Therefore, Josephus is quite right in calling Belshazzar “more daring” than Nebuchadnezzar, who did not dare to use the vessels of the Jerusalem temple for himself and placed them in the church of his god. Dan.5:5. At that very hour, the fingers of a human hand came out and wrote against the lamp on the limestone wall of the royal palace, and the king saw the hand that was writing. Dan.5:6. Then the king changed his countenance; his thoughts confused him, the ties of his loins weakened, and his knees began to beat against each other. The forgotten Belshazzar was brought to his senses by the appearance of a hand inscribing mysterious writings on the wall of the palace: insolence gave way to fear. As evidenced by excavations carried out in Babylonia, the internal walls of houses were covered with plaster - strong cement made from slaked lime and gypsum, and this, in turn, was covered with white mastic, on which entire paintings were sometimes depicted. The writings, easily drawn on the wall so decorated, were visible to the feasters, as the light of the lamp illuminating the banquet hall fell on them. Dan.5:7. The king shouted loudly to bring the charmers, the Chaldeans and the fortune-tellers. The king began to speak and said to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and explains to me the meaning of it, he will be clothed in purple, and a golden chain will be around his neck, and he will be the third ruler in the kingdom. For reading the inscription, Belshazzar promises the reward usually bestowed by eastern kings for important merits: a purple robe, the production of which Babylon was especially famous for (Ezek. 27:24) and a gold chain. A similar custom was observed among the Egyptians (Gen.41:42), Medes, Persians (Esther.6:8; Esther.8:15), Syrians (1Mac.10:20; 1Mac.14:43–44) and other peoples of antiquity. Dan.5:8. And all the king’s wise men entered, but they could not read what was written and explain its meaning to the king. According to Prideaux and Kranichfeld, the Chaldean sages could not read the inscription because it was written in the ancient Phoenician language. But such an assumption is hardly probable: the ancient Phoenician language was known to the Babylonians due to their constant trade relations with Phenicia. Talmudists explain the impotence of the Chaldeans by the fact that the inscription was made in a special Kabbalistic way, for example, not in a horizontal, but in a vertical direction, or the words were written in the reverse order, or, finally, only one or two initial letters were written from each word, which is why it was impossible to grasp the meaning of both individual expressions and the whole phrase. Dan.5:9. King Belshazzar became extremely alarmed, and the appearance of his face changed on him, and his nobles were embarrassed. Dan.5:10. The queen, in response to the words of the king and his nobles, entered the feast chamber; The queen began to speak and said: King, live forever! May your thoughts not confuse you, and may the appearance of your face not change! Dan.5:11. There is in your kingdom a man in whom is the spirit of the holy God; in the days of your father, light, reason and wisdom were found in him, similar to the wisdom of the gods, and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, made him the head of the mystic scholars, charmers, Chaldeans and fortune-tellers - your father himself, the king, Dan.5:12. because in him, in Daniel, whom the king renamed Belshazzar, there turned out to be a high spirit, knowledge and intelligence, capable of explaining dreams, interpreting the mysterious and resolving knots. So let them call Daniel and he will explain the meaning. Placed in a hopeless situation by the powerlessness of his wise men, Belshazzar was brought out of it by the advice of the “queen” to invite Daniel to read and explain the mysterious inscription. The presence of the royal wives in the banquet hall (Dan.5:2-3), the queen entering the “feast chamber” (Dan.5:10), as well as her determination to give the king public advice, which the wife of an eastern despot could not dare to do, makes us think that by “queen” we mean not Belshazzar’s wife, but his mother, daughter or granddaughter of Nebuchadnezzar (Flavius). In her mouth, Belshazzar is the son of Nebuchadnezzar, not in a literal, but in a figurative sense, a descendant. The word “son” is also used with a similar meaning in wedge-shaped inscriptions. Thus, in the inscription of Shalmaneser II, Jehu, the king of Israel, is called the son of Omri, although in fact he was the son of Jehoshaphat (2 Kings 9:2). If Nebuchadnezzar was the natural father of Belshazzar, then there would be no need to add his name: “Nebuchadnezzar, your father.” Dan.5:13. Then Daniel was brought before the king, and the king began to speak and said to Daniel: Are you Daniel, one of the captive sons of Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judea? Daniel 5:14. I heard about you that the spirit of God is in you and light, and intelligence, and high wisdom is found in you. Dan.5:15. Behold, wise men and charmers were brought to me to read this writing and explain to me its meaning; but they couldn't explain it to me. Dan.5:16. And I heard about you that you can explain meaning and resolve knots; So, if you can read this writing and explain to me its meaning, then you will be clothed in purple, and a golden chain will be around your neck, and you will be the third ruler in the kingdom. Belshazzar knew the history of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, at least the history of his illness (Dan.5:22; cf. v. Dan.5:18-21), but he does not know Daniel (“Are you Daniel?”) and apparently hears about his wisdom for the first time (Dan.5:16; Dan.5:13). The reasons for this seem to lie in the palace unrest and coups that began after the death of Nebuchadnezzar: his son Evilmerodach, having reigned for only two years, was killed by his sister’s husband Neriglissor; this latter reigned for about 4 years and was killed in the war with the Persians; his son and successor Lavosoardach reigned for only 9 months and was killed by the conspirators, among whom was Nabonidus, Belshazzar's father. The change of nobles, inevitable during such upheavals, affected Daniel by removing him from Babylon: at least in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, he was in Susa (Dan. 8: 1–2). It is not surprising that under such circumstances the prophet was not known to Belshazzar. Dan.5:17. Then Daniel answered and said to the king: Let your gifts remain with you, and give honor to another; and I will read what is written to the king and explain the meaning to him. By refusing the reward, Daniel wanted to say that he, as a prophet of the Lord, without any selfish views or calculations, would speak the truth, whatever it may be - pleasant or unpleasant for the king. Daniel 5:18. Tsar! The Almighty God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar kingdom, greatness, honor and glory. Dan.5:19. Before the greatness that He gave him, all peoples, tribes and languages ​​trembled and feared him: whomever he wanted, he killed, and whomever he wanted, he left alive; whom he wanted, he elevated, and whom he wanted, he humiliated. Daniel 5:20. But when his heart became proud and his spirit hardened to the point of insolence, he was overthrown from his royal throne and deprived of his glory, Dan.5:21. and he was cut off from the sons of men, and his heart became like that of a beast, and he lived with wild asses; they fed him grass like an ox, and his body was watered with heavenly dew, until he knew that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of man and puts over it whomever he wants. Daniel 5:22. And you, his son Belshazzar, did not humble your heart, although you knew all this, Dan.5:23. but you ascended against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of His house were brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them, and you glorified the gods of silver and gold, copper, iron, wood and stone, who neither see, nor hear, nor understand; but you have not glorified God, in whose hand is your breath and with whom are all your ways. Dan.5:24. For this reason the hand was sent from Him, and this scripture was written. Dan.5:25. And this is what is written: mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. Dan.5:26. This is the meaning of the words: me - God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it; Dan.5:27. Tekel - you are weighed on the scales and found very light; Dan.5:28. Peres - your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. The example of Nebuchadnezzar should have warned Belshazzar from exalting himself before the true God. But he did not heed this lesson, he showed unheard-of pride, and deliberately insulted the Almighty. By such an act, Belshazzar showed that he had no merits in himself, nothing at all that could prolong the existence of him and his kingdom (“tekel - you are weighed on the scales and found very light”). Therefore, God determined to put an end to them - to stop their further existence ("me - God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it"). Dan.5:29. Then, at the command of Belshazzar, they clothed Daniel in purple and placed a golden chain around his neck, and proclaimed him the third ruler in the kingdom. Despite the formidable prediction, Belshazzar fulfills his promise, rewards the prophet, hoping, perhaps, thereby to earn forgiveness from the God of Daniel, or to cancel, at least postpone the formidable punishment (John Chrysostom, Ephraim the Syrian). Now (cf. Dan. 5:17) Daniel does not refuse the reward either. Blessed Jerome explains this by saying that the prophet wanted to become known through this to the successor of Belshazzar and thereby more useful to his people. Daniel 5:31. and Darius the Mede received the kingdom when he was sixty-two years old. You might be interested in: