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Nebuchadnezzar, Evilmerodach, Belshazzar Daniel 5:1. Belshazzar the king served a great supper to his nobles. Belshazzar is the son of Nebuchadnezzar, but was not his immediate successor; because his brother Evilmerodach reigned as the eldest, and this is shown to us by the history of the Kingdoms and the blessed Jeremiah the Prophet, saying this: “And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiakim king of Judah, in the second month on the twenty-fourth day of the month, Evilmerodah the king of Babylon exalted in the first year of his kingdom the head of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and he brought him out of the church, where he was guarded, and said good things to him: “And he will give his throne higher than the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon, and change the garments of his prison, and eat bread always before him all the days of his life” (Jer. 52:31-33). This Joachim is also Jehoiachin; because Nebuchadnezzar, having killed his father Joachim, who was also called Eliakim, under whom the blessed Daniel was taken into captivity, was killed in Jerusalem and thrown outside the walls, as divine Scripture shows (Jer. 22:19). So, after Nebuchadnezzar, Evilmerodach reigns; and after him Belshazzar. The Divine Daniel did not mention Evilmerodach because he was writing not just history, but a prophecy. For this reason, I did not describe everything that happened under Nebuchadnezzar, but only what was necessary to mention for the sake of benefit. So, since under Belshazzar God showed a very great miracle, sufficient to instill reverence and fear in not only his contemporaries, but also those who will ever live afterwards, and convert them to piety; I did not consider it fair to hide such complacency in silence, but recognized it as a holy deed to commit this to writing and leave a monument to the teaching for everyone. Therefore he says: “King Belshazzar made a great supper for his nobles.” Daniel 5:2. There is wine before a thousand, that is, in an amount sufficient for a thousand, prepared for exactly that number. says the Prophet, “When you drank wine, you should bring the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father brought from the temple in Jerusalem, and let the king and his nobles and his concubines and those who reclined around him drink in them.” Here the Prophet shows us not only the extreme measure of wickedness, but also the harm from excessive consumption of wine. For he says: “When the king drank, he said, when he tasted the wine, bring vessels of gold and silver;” because intoxication darkened the mind, and intemperance gave rise to the insane thought of offending God; those vessels dedicated to the service of God, which Nebuchadnezzar his father, although he took, by God's permission, but honored, as it seemed to him, and took them out of use for people, he dared to use as ordinary ones. For he not only ordered it to be brought, but added the deed to the word. Dan.5:3. And he brought down the vessels of gold and silver, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from the church of God in Jerusalem. The Prophet perfectly showed the excess of recklessness, mentioning God in the name of the church, and allowing one to see the celebrity of the church, adding the name of Jerusalem. These vessels, says the Prophet, were dedicated not to some imaginary gods who have only one name, but to the very God who exists above all, Who chose Jerusalem, and filled the temple of Jerusalem with His glory. These vessels, inviolable and dedicated to the God of all, not as having need of them, but as accepting the gratitude of those who bring them, the wicked king brought to Wednesday and drank from them; Not only did he drink himself, but also “his men and his concubines and those who reclined around him.” that is, he made the utensils of divine service into instruments of drunkenness, and commanded the women who served his indecency to drink wine from them. Then, showing the extreme measure of wickedness, the Prophet added: And the gods praised gold and silver and copper and iron and wood and stone. Filled with all kinds of abomination, Belshazzar, drinking and enjoying from divine vessels, consigned the Lord of all to oblivion, honoring in hymns non-existent gods made of inanimate matter, who did not receive the power to act from art, but took only an image devoid of action. But the Ruler of all, through long-suffering, did not allow the people of that time and those living after them to become defiled, and immediately reveals His power. For the Prophet says: Dan.5:5. At that hour. the fingers of the hand of man came forth, and I wrote against the lamp on the wall of the king's house, and the king saw the fingers of the hand that wrote. Because he sang of idols, devoid of any action, and despised all God; then the Creator of all things teaches him the invisibility and incorporeality of His Divine nature. For he shows him only his writing fingers, admonishing him that he would not have seen them either if he himself had not given a reason to make this necessary. Those who feasted with the king received great benefit from this, recognizing, beyond incorporeality and invisibility, the power of God; and also, in addition to the materiality and inanimateness of the gods they glorify, their complete impotence and inactivity. And that this miracle created great fear in everyone, the Prophet testified to this, saying this: Dan.5:6. Then the king’s visage changed, and his thoughts became troubling, and the joints of his loins were relaxed, and his knees fought one another. If the vision of the writing fingers struck the ruler of the great kingdom with such horror that the bonds of his structures weakened from fear, his limbs began to tremble and waver; then what would not this God-hating one endure, see flames and lightning, or Angels looking menacingly and intimidating with the extraordinary splendor of their appearance? For their visions and the great Daniel could not endure without fear, Truly, “why is the earth and ashes proud” (Sir. 10:9)? Therefore Belshazzar, filled with a great deal of fear, Dan.5:7. Cry with power to bring in the Magi, the Chaldeans, the Gazarins. Fear made him cry out, and mental confusion prompted him to quickly find out the definition. Then, as a reward for the one who reads the scripture and makes an interpretation, he offers royal clothes, a gold hryvnia on the neck, and the right to be third in line with the king. But the godlessness of the Magi and Chaldeans was exposed; because they did not figure out how to read the divine writings, even when such a reward was offered to them, which greatly encouraged them. Dan.5:9. King Belshazzar became indignant, and his appearance changed on him, and his nobles were embarrassed. From this it is clear that the Lord, thinking about the benefit of others, did not immediately take the life of the king, but first he showed the fingers of the writer, striking with this and instilling fear, he forced them to call the wise men of the Chaldeans, exposed their falsity and powerlessness, made the need for the wisdom of Daniel felt, so that with his tongue he could expose both the king and benefit others; and when all this was accomplished, then he decided to punish the evil king. Therefore, with the general confusion of the king and the feasting, While the king and his nobles were still speaking, “they went into the feast house,” that is, when they were consulting what to do, and each offered his own, to which fear prompted him, the queen entered. And it seems to me that it was the king’s mother; because the concubines and those who reclined around him shared this supper with him. “And I drink” from vessels of gold and silver the king himself, “and” “his nobles, and his concubines,” that is, his wives, “and his guests,” that is, those who lived with him, not according to the law, but indecently; The queen entered after confusion, and probably, as an elderly woman, did not then participate in this drunkenness and dancing. And the queen answered, it is said, “and said: To the king live forever.” This, it seems, was the usual greeting that the reigning subjects then made; This custom continues to this day; because some meaningless people are in the habit of calling present-day kings eternal, and in written agreements others make this writing, serving ignorance rather than wickedness. So the queen says: Let not your thoughts trouble you, and “Let your appearance not change.” Then imagine a reason why fear should be put aside. Dan.5:11. There is a man in your kingdom, and in it “The Holy Spirit of God, and in the days of your father” “cheerfulness and meaning were found in him.” And from this we can understand that this, most likely, was the king’s mother. Therefore, he retells to him, as if he does not know, what happened long ago, informs him about blessed Daniel, confesses that he is filled with the Spirit of God, and speaks in Nebuchadnezzar’s own words. For he also said about Daniel. She added: “in the days of your father, vigor and meaning were found in him,” and called sobriety of the soul vigor, and meaning the understanding of the hidden and the vision of what is hidden from many. continues the queen, “your father, make him a prince, a charmer, a sorcerer, a Chaldean, Gazarin.” Then he adds the reason. Like the spirit abundant in him, that is, he has the overabundant grace of the Spirit. Then he enumerates the types of spiritual effectiveness and says: And wisdom and meaning, telling dreams and proclaiming the hidden 5, and resolving the sentences of Daniel; because, having become a vessel of God's Spirit, Daniel gives wise advice on everything, reasons prudently about everything, guesses dreams, and what is covered by some kind of obscurity, he frees from obscurity, as if removing some bonds and seals, and freeing what is kept in secret places from shackles, allows and opens, and leads those who wish into the very interior. This is what the words mean: “declare the unseen, and the sentence of Daniel will be resolved.” Therefore, says the queen, The king will call his name Belshazzar. Because he saw that he was illuminated by Divine power; then he deigned to call him even God. Now let Daniel be called, and let his story be told to you. And he does not say: call Belshazzar; because having learned by experience the power of the Prophet, the Hebrew name is preferred to the Chaldean one. Therefore, later they call him Daniel. It is said that “Daniel came in before the king and the king said to Danin: Art thou Daniel, a captive of the children of Judah”? Probably, Belshazzar, due to great wickedness, after the death of his father, avoided communication with Daniel. Therefore, struck by fear, he immediately calls upon the Magi and the Chaldeans, but he did not even remember the Prophet. But when his mother reminded him of the miracles that had happened with his father, and the summoned Daniel came; the king immediately recognized him; because if I had not known, I would not have remembered the generation, and would not have pointed out the Jewish captivity. However, he asks Daniel and says: “Are you Daniel a captive of the children of Judah?” And before the Prophet confirmed this, he said: Daniel 5:14. I have heard about you, that the Holy Spirit is in you, and cheerfulness, and meaning, and wisdom are found in abundance in you. And it is fitting to say about Belshazzar what the Prophet said about Israel: “When I kill, then I will seek Him” (Psalm 77:34). For Belshazzar’s fear of God’s power forced him, instead of non-existent gods, to call the existing God God, to glorify the grace of the Holy Spirit, to accuse the wise men of Babylon as being unable to understand God’s Scripture, and to beg the Prophet of God to explain the incomprehensible. The Tsar promises to give the Prophet a scarlet robe, a hryvnia on his neck, and third place in the possession of the kingdom. But blessed Daniel, laughing at the royal promises of the evil one, said to him: Dan.5:17. Let your gifts be with you, and give a gift to your house to another, and I will read the scripture to the king, and I will tell his story to you, the king. This saying of the Prophet is truly apostolic. And the Lord, sending them as preachers to all people, commanded the Apostles, saying: “Tune ye eat, ye give tuna” (Matthew 10:8). And this blessed Prophet said to the king: “Let your giving be with you, and give the gift of your house to another, and I will read the scripture to the king, and I will tell its story to you, the king.” I did not learn to sell the Divine, and to collect human retribution for divine secrets. Therefore, freely accept the knowledge of what you do not know. says the Prophet, “the kingdom and the majesty, and the honor and the glory will be given to Nebuchadnezzar” “to your father”, Dan.5:19. And from the Majesty, who gave it to him, all people, tribes, pagans, trembled and feared at his presence. Don’t think, he says, that the father, by his own power, conquered the entire universe, and united many peoples speaking different languages ​​into one kingdom. The Lord of all, the Creator of all, ruling wisely over all, gave him the kingdom; and by God's decree the fear of your father rested on his subjects. And what you want, you exalt, and what you want, you humble. He received such power, says the Prophet, from God that he could make those standing on high humiliated, and make the most invisible and insignificant people famous. Daniel 5:20. And when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was strengthened, he was brought down from the throne of his kingdom. Just as he himself, says the Prophet, “whoever he wanted to exalt and whoever he wanted to humble,” of course, not doing this according to a just verdict: so the King and Lord of all, according to His will, gave your father the kingdom, but seeing that he thought inordinately highly of himself, arrogantly and arrogantly ruled the kingdom and fell into the disease of pride, God deprived him of the royal throne, took away from him the honor given everyone. He not only stripped him of the distinction of being a king, but expelled him from the human community, betraying him to insanity and frenzy, and made him live with wild donkeys and animals. From whom he imitated in his atrocity, he adopted his way of life. The Prophet mentions about him that he ate grass like oxen, and wandering naked, suffering in the open air, lost his previous body color, but took on another, produced by both cold and heat. And he endured all this, says the Prophet, Dan.5:21. Dondezh, we understand that the Most High owns the kingdom of man, and wants to give it to him. But he learned by experience what was necessary, and was taught by his very deeds that everything human is not solid, but the God of all, having eternal power, manages human affairs as He pleases, and to whom He pleases He gives the kingdom as a gift. Daniel 5:22. You are his son, Belshazzar, says the Prophet, “thou didst not humble thy heart before the Lord: didst thou not know all this?” Your father’s misfortunes did not enlighten you, and from what he suffered, you did not want to know God’s power. Dan.5:23. But you ascended to the Lord of heaven. He gives an excellent lesson to those present to worship not what is visible, but the Creator and Lord of the visible. And at the same time, he denounces the king’s arrogance and teaches that the highest heaven has the invisible God as its Creator. And you, says the Prophet, raised your heart higher, not only to heaven, but also to the heavenly God, the Lord of all creation. If you weren’t so arrogant, you wouldn’t have ordered the vessels of the house of God to be brought. And you and your nobles and your concubines, and those who recline around you, drink wine with them, that is, you used vessels dedicated to God for drinking wine and drunkenness. Then, depicting the excess of wickedness, the Prophet says: And you praised the gods of gold, and silver, and copper, and iron, and wood, and stone. And continuing to show how worthy of ridicule this is, he adds: They neither see nor hear nor understand. You could understand their impotence by looking at their substance, at the art applied to the substance, and, moreover, at the insensibility of the parts of their components; because they are deprived of knowledge, sight and hearing, do not have any initiative, but are simply idiots who are no different. Even this did not convince you to understand what you should have understood; On the contrary, you never cease to praise these gods, who cannot provide you with any benefit. But God, your breath is in His hand, and all your ways, Him you have not glorified. Beautifully and very wisely, the Prophet, for the benefit of those listening, brought into comparison all idols and God, and showed that idols do not see and do not hear, but about God he did not add that He sees, hears, and knows, but presented what is most important, and precisely said: your life and your ways are in His hand. For in comparison with this - to have life yourself, it is much more important to impart life to others, and also, whenever you want, to take life from others. Therefore, the Prophet showed that idols are devoid of life and all feeling, and the Lord of all, God, is the giver of all life, and gives it and takes it away, ruling everyone as He pleases. However, says the Prophet, this all-perfect and all-powerful God, who has power over life and death, who sets up and brings down kings - this, I say, God, you not only have not glorified, but even more so you do not cease to insult Him, drinking from the vessels dedicated to Him. Dan.5:24. For this reason, from the face of His message the fingers were touched, and this writing was written. The Prophet did not say: He Himself wrote this, but says: “Send out from His face the fingers of hands,” that is, He commanded that it be written, and did not show you everything that was written, but wanted to expose your arrogance, with just His fingers he horrified you, and filled you with fear to such an extent. Find out, says the Prophet, both the scripture itself and the interpretation of what is written. Dan.5:25. This is the scripture: Mani, Fekel, Peres. Dan.5:26. This is the legend of the verb (the Prophet calls the interpretation a legend): “Mani, God measure your kingdom and end it,” that is, he saw that you were not worthy of the kingdom, and decided to deprive you of it. Dan.5:27. Fekel, set yourself in standards and find yourself deprived. This Prophet taught not only him, but also us, that with God everything is weighed, and mercy and patience are shown to people by measure and weight. Therefore, says the Prophet, since you have transgressed the limits of philanthropy, then accept the divine decree about you. Dan.5:28. Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to Medes and Persians. It is necessary to ask: why did God, having punished all sorts of Nebuchadnezzar, again elevated him to the kingdom, and immediately deprived Belshazzar of both the kingdom and his life? Therefore, upon careful examination, we find: firstly, Nebuchadnezzar did not see that another would suffer punishment for wickedness, and therefore God’s righteous court honored him with pardon; and Belshazzar, seeing the severe punishment suffered by his father, did not benefit from it in the slightest; and therefore the truthful Judge rightly limited the punishment of Nebuchadnezzar to a certain time, and did not honor Belshazzar with any pardon. On the other hand, God, foreseeing the whole future, knowing this as clearly as what had already happened, foresees Nebuchadnezzar’s repentance, this was also his view of him, knowing in advance that Belshazzar’s wickedness would continue to the end, by death he stopped the growth of this wickedness. Belshazzar, as soon as he listened to Daniel’s interpretation, ordered him to take the offered reward, (29) “a scarlet robe and a golden hryvnia.” Then, having decorated it in this way, he announced to his subjects through a herald that he had made Daniel third prince in the kingdom. But all this did not turn away God’s determination. For it is said: Dan.5:30. Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was killed that night. The Prophet called him here the king of the Chaldeans to show the end of the Chaldean kingdom. Truly, “it is a terrible thing to fall into the hand of the living God,” according to the word of the divine Apostle (Heb. 10:31); It is terrible to neglect “the riches of His goodness and meekness and long-suffering” (Rom. 2:4), and not to worship and please Him to the best of one’s ability. Who, as the Prophet says, “was cruel against the Lord and continued” (Job 9:4)? That is why blessed David commands: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as if in anger” (Psalm 94:7.8). And interpreting this, Blessed Paul offers advice: “Beware, brethren, lest in any heart of you there be the deceit of unbelief in the hedgehog to depart from God. But comfort yourselves every day, until today, he is rebuked, lest anyone be hardened by you through the flattery of sin” (Heb. 3:12.13). For sin, luring us with pleasures, like that senseless king with drunkenness, often hardens and makes our heart so stubborn that it conveniently accepts the disease of wickedness. Therefore, I beg you, let us flee from the devil’s delusion, and let us prefer constant virtue to sin, which deceives us with short-term pleasure, so that we may become alien to fellowship with Belshazzar, and may be considered worthy of the community of Daniel, in Christ Jesus our Lord. With Him be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever! Amen. Nebuchadnezzar, Evilmerodah his son, Belshazzar his brother; Darius the Mede, according to Joseph, is the son of Astyages, and uncle of Kirov on his mother’s side; Cyrus Pers. The Greeks call him Cyaxares (5, 31). “And Darius the Mede, having received the kingdom, was sixty-two years old.” The kingdom of the Chaldeans, according to God's prophecy, came to an end, and dominion over the universe passed to the Medes. This is how Daniel foretold and interpreted the word: “Phares;” for he says: “Your kingdom was divided, and it was given to Medes and Persians.” But, after the short reign of Darius the Mede, Cyrus, having accepted royal power, transferred it to the Persians. The historian Josephus says that Darius was the son of Astyages and the maternal uncle of Cyrus, but the Hellenic writers gave him a different name; for they called him Cyaxares says that Darius and his nephew Cyrus, together taking up arms against Babylon, after the siege, took possession of the city, and killed Belshazzar on the night on which he saw the above words written on the wall. But what was written by blessed Daniel does not allow us to believe this; he reveals to us at the end of the story about Darius that “Daniel ruled in the kingdom of Darius, and in the kingdom of Cyrus the Persian” (Dan. 6:28), and hereby he shows that the kingdom of Darius was different, and Kirovo was different. If they made one campaign against Babylon; then, of course, they had one kingdom. But now the Prophet says that the kingdom of the one was different, and the kingdom of the other was different. And at the end of the prophecy, Daniel says this: “And King Astyages was joined to his father: and Cyrus the Persian received the kingdom” (Dan 14:1). Therefore, not together, Darius and Cyrus reigned and killed Belshazzar; but first Darius, the son of Assuir, reigned, and after him Cyrus. What Joseph said does not agree with the Greek stories; for it cannot be found in them that Cyaxares, the son of Astyages, is one and the same with Darius, about whom Joseph said that he, together with Cyrus, made a campaign against Babylon. Therefore, what Joseph claims is not credible in any respect. And I, following the divine Scripture, find that Darius was the son of the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. God, having commanded Jeremiah to put bonds on himself, and also to send bonds to the neighboring kings of Edomite, Moab, Ammonite, Tyre and Sidon, also commanded him to say the following: “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, thus cry to your lords: I have made the earth with My great strength,” and “with My high arm, and I will give it as He pleases.” before my eyes. Nebuchadnezzar gave all the land to the king of Babylon, that they might work for him, and all the nations might serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the time of their land came” (Jer. 27:4-1). Therefore, since Belshazzar is called by Daniel the son of Nebuchadnezzar, a grandson must be sought. If anyone objects, saying that Darius is called a Mede, then let him know that this does not in the least harm our assumption. For Cyrus, being the son of the daughter of Astyages, who was a Mede and reigned over the Medes, is called a Persian; because it is customary for people to give popular names based on paternal kinship. Therefore, probably, Darius, having a Mede father and a Chaldean mother, is called after his father, Mede. If this is not so; then let anyone show Nebuchadnezzar the grandson who inherited his grandfather’s kingdom, and we will not say a word against this; for every sensible person will agree that the prophecy of the great Jeremiah is absolutely true. If it seems to anyone that Darius is the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, not from a daughter, but from a son; because the Prophet said: “They will serve him, and his son, and his son’s son;” then let him recognize this peculiarity in the use of words of the Divine Scripture. Having in the custom of making genealogy from the male sex, and wanting to name its grandson, it named him the son of a son. And that he is not the son of a son, blessed Daniel testifies to this, saying: “Darius the Mede received the kingdom.” And that Nebuchadnezzar would pass on the kingdom even to his grandson, the divine Jeremiah predicted about this. Therefore, from both prophecies one can find out the truth, and from the prophecy of Jeremiah one can make sure that the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar will retain the kingdom for himself, and from the prophecy of blessed Daniel that after the death of Nebuchadnezzar’s son Belshazzar, Darius the Mede took over the kingdom. Taking this into consideration, and knowing not the deceit of the Prophets, we find that Darius is a Mede by father, and Chaldean by mother and the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. We found this by searching for the truth of both prophecies. But let everyone think about this as he pleases; because no harm will come from doubting the gender. Therefore, let us now touch on a detailed interpretation. According to other lists, instead of κρυπτὀμενα it is read here κρτυ ὠ μενα