Baltasar’s profane banquet: his sentence is denounced by a handwriting on the wall, which Daniel reads and interprets.
King Baltassar making a great banket, with his nobles drinke in the holie vessels, which were taken from the Temple of Ierusalem. 5. Fingers appeare writing on the wal: 10. which only Daniel readeth, and interpreteth: 18. signifying the ruine of the king: 30. happening the same night.
1Baltasar, the king, made a great feast for a thousand of his nobles: and every one drank according to his age.Il re Baltassar fece un gran convito a mille de' suoi grandi, e ognuno bevea secondo la sua età:BALTASSAR the king made a great feast to his nobles a thousand: and euerie one dranke according to his age.Baltassar rex fecit grande convivium optimatibus suis mille: et unusquisque secundum suam bibebat ætatem. 2And being now drunk, he commanded that they should bring the vessels of gold and silver, which Nabuchodonosor, his father, had brought away out of the temple, that was in Jerusalem, that the king and his nobles, and his wives, and his concubines, might drink in them.Ed essendo egli già zuppo di vino, ordinò, che fosser portati i vasi d'oro, e d'argento, i quali il padre suo Nabuchodonosor avea portati via dal tempio, che fu in Gerusalemme, affinchè ad essi bevessero il re, e i suoi grandi, e le sue mogli, e le concubine.He commanded therfore now being drunke that the vessels of gold & siluer, should be brought, which Nabuchodonosor his father had caried away out of the temple, that was in Ierusalem, that the king, and his Nobles might drinke in them, and his wiues, and concubines.Præcepit ergo jam temulentus ut afferrentur vasa aurea et argentea, quæ asportaverat Nabuchodonosor pater ejus de templo, quod fuit in Ierusalem, ut biberent in eis rex, et optimates ejus, uxoresque ejus, et concubinæ. 3Then were the golden and silver vessels brought, which he had brought away out of the temple that was in Jerusalem: and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.E furon portati i vasi di oro, e d'argento portati via dal tempio, che era stato in Gerusalemme, e bevvero ad essi il re, e i suoi cortigiani, e le sue mogli, e le sue concubine.Then were the golden and siluer vessels brought, which he had caried away out of the temple, that was in Ierusalem: and the king and his nobles dranke in them, his wiues and concubines.Tunc allata sunt vasa aurea, et argentea, quæ asportaverat de templo, quod fuerat in Ierusalem: et biberunt in eis rex, et optimates ejus, uxores et concubinæ illius. 4They drank wine, and praised their gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, and of wood, and of stone.Beveano il vino, e celebravano gli dei loro d'oro, d'argento, di bronzo, di ferro, di legno, e di pietra.They dranke wine, and praysed their goddes of gold, and of siluer, of brasse, of yron, and of wood, and of stone.Bibebant vinum, et laudabant deos suos aureos et argenteos, æreos, ferreos, ligneosque et lapideos.
5In the same hour there appeared fingers, as it were of the hand of a man, writing over against the candlestick, upon the surface of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king beheld the joints of the hand that wrote.Nello stesso punto apparvero delle dita come di mano di uomo, che scrivea dirimpetto al candelabro sulla superficie della muraglia della sala reale: e il re stava osservando le dita della mano, che scriveva.In the very same houre there appeared fingers, as it were of the hand of a man, writing ouer against the candlesticke in the vtter part of the wal of the kings palace: and the king beheld the ioynts of the hand that wrote.In eadem hora apparuerunt digiti, quasi manus hominis scribentis contra candelabrum in superficie parietis aulæ regiæ: et rex aspiciebat articulos manus scribentis. 6Then was the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him: and the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees struck one against the other.Allora il re cangiossi in faccia di colore, e i suoi pensieri lo conturbavano, e se gli stemperavano i reni, e le sue ginocchia si battevano l'uno coll'altro.Then was the kings face changed, and his cogitations trubled him: and the iunctures of his reynes were loosed, and his knees were striken one against the other.Tunc facies regis commutata est, et cogitationes ejus conturbabant eum: et compages renum ejus solvebantur, et genua ejus ad se invicem collidebantur. 7And the king cried out aloud to bring in the wise men, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spoke, and said to the wise men of Babylon: Whosoever shall read this writing, and shall make known to me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with purple, and shall have a golden chain on his neck, and shall be the third man in my kingdom.E il re fortemente sclamò, che facessero venire i maghi, e i Caldei, e gli aruspici. E il re prese a dire ai sapienti di Babilonia: Chiunque leggerà questa scrittura, e mi renderà inteso del suo significato, sarà rivestito di porpora, e avrà una collana d'oro al suo collo, e sarà la terza persona del mio regno.The king therfore cried out mightely that they should bring in the magicians, Chaldees, and southsayers. And the king speaking sayd to the wisemen of Babylon: Whosoeuer shal read this writing, and shal make the interpretation therof manifest vnto me, shal be clothed with purple, and shal haue a golden chayne on his necke, & shal be the third in my kingdom.Exclamavit itaque rex fortiter ut introducerent magos, Chaldæos, et aruspices. Et proloquens rex ait sapientibus Babylonis: Quicumque legerit scripturam hanc, et interpretationem ejus manifestam mihi fecerit, purpura vestietur, et torquem auream habebit in collo, et tertius in regno meo erit. 8Then came in all the king’s wise men, but they could neither read the writing, nor declare the interpretation to the king.Allora andarono tutti i sapienti del re, e non poterono né leggere la scrittura, né dirne al re il significato.Then al the kings wisemen going in could not neither read the writing, nor declare the interpretation to the king.Tunc ingressi omnes sapientes regis non potuerunt nec scripturam legere, nec interpretationem indicare regi.
9Wherewith king Baltasar was much troubled, and his countenance was changed: and his nobles also were troubled.Per la qual cosa il re Baltassar ne restò conturbato altamente, e sfigurato in volto, ed anche i suoi cortigiani erano conturbati.Wherewith king Baltassar was much trubled, and his countenance was changed: yea and his nobles were trubled.Unde rex Baltassar satis conturbatus est, et vultus illius immutatus est; sed et optimates ejus turbabantur. 10Then the queen, on occasion of what had happened to the king, and his nobles, came into the banquet-house: and she spoke, and said: O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, neither let thy countenance be changed.Ma la regina a motivo di quello, che era avvenuto al re, e a' suoi cortigiani, entrò nella sala del convito, e presa la parola disse: Vivi in eterno, o re: non ti conturbino i tuoi pensieri, né si alteri la tua faccia.And the queene for the thing that had happened to the king, and his Nobles, entered into the house of the feast: and speaking she sayd: King for euer liue: let not thy cogitations truble thee, neither let thy face be changed.Regina autem pro re, quæ acciderat regi et optimatibus ejus, domum convivii ingressa est: et proloquens ait: Rex, in æternum vive ! non te conturbent cogitationes tuæ, neque facies tua immutetur. 11There is a man in thy kingdom that hath the spirit of the holy gods in him: and in the days of thy father knowledge and wisdom were found in him: for king Nabuchodonosor, thy father, appointed him prince of the wise men, enchanters, Chaldeans, and soothsayers, thy father, I say, O king:Nel tuo regno havvi un uomo, il quale ha in se lo spirito de' santi dei: e a tempo del padre tuo fu in lui riconosciuto sapere, e saggezza: imperocché lo stesso re Nabuchodonosor padre tuo lo costituì principe de' maghi, degli incantatori, de' Caldei, e degli aruspici, il padre tuo, io dico, o re.There is a man in thy kingdom, that hath the spirit of the holie goddes in him: and in the dayes of thy father knowlege and wisedom were found in him: for king Nabuchodonosor also thy father appoynted him prince of the magicians, inchanters, Chaldees and southsayers, thy father, I say ô king:Est vir in regno tuo, qui spiritum deorum sanctorum habet in se, et in diebus patris tui scientia et sapientia inventæ sunt in eo: nam et rex Nabuchodonosor pater tuus principem magorum, incantatorum, Chaldæorum, et aruspicum constituit eum, pater, inquam, tuus, o rex: 12Because a greater spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, and interpretation of dreams, and shewing of secrets, and resolving of difficult things, were found in him, that is, in Daniel: whom the king named Baltassar. Now, therefore, let Daniel be called for, and he will tell the interpretation.Perchè fu scoperto in lui uno spirito superiore, e intelligenza nell'esporre i sogni, nell'investigare gli arcani, e nello scioglimento di cose intrigate, voglio dir in Daniele, cui il ridiede il nome di Baltassar: chiamisi adunque ora Daniele, ed ei darà l'interpretazione.Because more ample spirit, and prudence, and vnderstanding, & interpretation of Dreames, and shewing of secrets, and solution of thinge bound were found in him, that is, in Daniel: to whom the king gaue the name Baltassar. Now therfore let Daniel be called, and he wil tel the interpretation.quia spiritus amplior, et prudentia, intelligentiaque et interpretatio somniorum, et ostensio secretorum, ac solutio ligatorum inventæ sunt in eo, hoc est in Daniele: cui rex posuit nomen Baltassar. Nunc itaque Daniel vocetur, et interpretationem narrabit.
13Then Daniel was brought in before the king. And the king spoke, and said to him: Art thou Daniel, of the children of the captivity of Juda, whom my father, the king, brought out of Judea?Fu pertanto condotto Daniele dinanzi al re: e il re prese a dirgli: Se' tu quel Daniele de' figliuoli esuli di Giuda, condotto dal re padre mio dalla Giudea?Daniel therfore was brought in before the king. To whom the king speaking, said: Art thou Daniel of the children of the captiuitie of Iuda, whom my father the king brought out of Iewrie?Igitur introductus est Daniel coram rege: ad quem præfatus rex ait: Tu es Daniel de filiis captivitatis Judæ, quem adduxit pater meus rex de Judæa ? 14I have heard of thee, that thou hast the spirit of the gods, and excellent knowledge, and understanding, and wisdom are found in thee.Ho sentito dire di te, che tu hai lo spirito degli dei, e che scienza, e intelligenza, e sapienza si trovino in te in grado superiore.I haue heard of thee, that thou hast the spirit of the goddes, and more ample knowlege, and vnderstanding, and wisedom are found in thee.audivi de te, quoniam spiritum deorum habeas, et scientia, intelligentiaque ac sapientia ampliores inventæ sunt in te. 15And now the wise men, the magicians, have come in before me, to read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof; and they could not declare to me the meaning of this writing.Ed ora sono venuti davanti a me i sapienti, e i maghi per leggere questa scrittura, e spiegarmene il significato, e non hanno potuto dirmi di senso queste parole.And now there haue come in into my sight the wise magicians, that they might read this writing, and might shew me the interpretation therof: and they could not declare me the sense of this word.Et nunc introgressi sunt in conspectu meo sapientes magi, ut scripturam hanc legerent, et interpretationem ejus indicarent mihi: et nequiverunt sensum hujus sermonis edicere. 16But I have heard of thee, that thou canst interpret obscure things, and resolve difficult things: now if thou art able to read the writing, and to shew me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with purple, and shalt have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third prince in my kingdom.Or io ho sentito dire di te, che tu puoi interpretare le cose oscure, e sciogliere le intralciate: Se adunque tu puoi leggere la scrittura, e darmene la spiegazione, sarai rivestito di porpora, e avrai una collana d'oro al tuo collo, e sarai la terza persona del mio regno.Moreouer I haue heard of thee, that thou canst interpret obscure thinges, and resolue thinges bound: if therfore thou be able to reade the writing, & to shew me the interpretation therof, thou shalt be clothed with purple, and shalt haue a cheyne of gold about thy necke, & shalt be the third prince in my kingdom.Porro ego audivi de te, quod possis obscura interpretari, et ligata dissolvere: si ergo vales scripturam legere, et interpretationem ejus indicare mihi, purpura vestieris, et torquem auream circa collum tuum habebis, et tertius in regno meo princeps eris.
17To which Daniel made answer, and said before the king: thy rewards be to thyself, and the gifts of thy house give to another: but the writing I will read to thee, O king, and shew thee the interpretation thereof.Alle quali cose Daniele rispose, e disse al re: I doni tuoi ti restino a te, e dà ad altri gli onori della tua reggia: ma io ti leggerò, o re, la scrittura, a te ne darò l'interpretazione.To which thinges Daniel answering, sayd before the king: Thy rewardes be they vnto thee, and the giftes of thy house geue to an other: but the writing wil I read thee, ô king, and the interpretation therof wil I shew to thee.Ad quæ respondens Daniel, ait coram rege: Munera tua sint tibi, et dona domus tuæ alteri da: scripturam autem legam tibi, rex, et interpretationem ejus ostendam tibi. 18O king, the most high God gave to Nabuchodonosor, thy father, a kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and honour.O re, l'Altissimo Dio diede a Nabuchodonosor padre tuo il regno, la magnificenza, la gloria, e l'onore.O king, God the most high gaue to Nabuchodonosor thy father kingdom and magnificence, glorie and honour.O rex, Deus altissimus regnum et magnificentiam, gloriam et honorem dedit Nabuchodonosor patri tuo. 19And for the greatness that he gave to him, all people, tribes, and languages trembled, and were afraid of him: whom he would, he slew: and whom he would, he destroyed: and whom he would, he set up: and whom he would, he brought down.E per la grandezza, che egli aveva a lui dato, lo temevano, e tremavan dinanzi a lui tutti i popoli, le tribù, e le lingue: egli uccideva chi gli pareva, e gastigava que', che voleva, e que', che voleva, esaltava, e umiliava quei, che voleva.And for the magnificence, which he gaue to him, al peoples, tribes, and tongues trembled, and feared him: whom he would he killed: and whom he would, he stroke: and whom he would he exalted: and whom he would, he humbled.Et propter magnificentiam, quam dederat ei, universi populi, tribus, et linguæ tremebant, et metuebant eum: quos volebat, interficiebat: et quos volebat, percutiebat: et quos volebat, exaltabat: et quos volebat, humiliabat. 20But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit hardened unto pride, he was put down from the throne of his kingdom, and his glory was taken away.Ma quando il cuore di lui si elevò, e lo spirito di lui si ostinò nella superbia, fu egli deposto dal trono del suo regno, e torta gli fu la sua gloria.But when his hart was eleuated, and his spirit obstinatly set to pride, he was deposed from the throne of his kingdom, and his glorie was taken away.Quando autem elevatum est cor ejus, et spiritus illius obfirmatus est ad superbiam, depositus est de solio regni sui, et gloria ejus ablata est:
21And he was driven out from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses, and he did eat grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven: till he knew that the most High ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he will set over it whomsoever it shall please him.E fu cacciato dal commercio degli uomini, e di più ebbe cuor simile a bestia, e converso cogli asini salvatichi: e fieno ancor mangiava qual bue, e di rugiada del cielo fu bagnato il suo corpo, sino a tanto che conoscesse, che l'Altissimo ha dominio sul regno degli uomini, e ad esso innalza chiunque a lui pare.And he was cast out from the sonnes of men, yea and his hart was set with the beasts, and with the wild asses was his habitation: grasse also he did eate as an oxe, and with the dew of heauen his bodie was embrewed: til he knew that the Highest had powre in the kingdom of men, and whomsoeuer it shal please him he wil raise vp ouer it.et a filiis hominum ejectus est, sed et cor ejus cum bestiis positum est, et cum onagris erat habitatio ejus: fœnum quoque ut bos comedebat, et rore cæli corpus ejus infectum est, donec cognosceret quod potestatem haberet Altissimus in regno hominum, et quemcumque voluerit, suscitabit super illud. 22Thou also, his son, O Baltasar, hast not humbled thy heart, whereas thou knewest all these things:Tu pure, o Baltassarre suo figliuolo, non hai umiliato il cuor tuo, mentre queste cose tutte sapevi:Thou also his sonne Baltassar, hast not humbled thy hart, wheras thou knowest al these thinges:Tu quoque, filius ejus Baltassar, non humiliasti cor tuum, cum scires hæc omnia: 23But hast lifted thyself up against the Lord of heaven: and the vessels of his house have been brought before thee: and thou, and thy nobles, and thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them: and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and of gold, and of brass, of iron, and of wood, and of stone, that neither see, nor hear, nor feel: but the God who hath thy breath in his hand, and all thy ways, thou hast not glorified.Ma contro il Dominatore del cielo ti se' innalzato e hai fatto portare dinanzi a te i vasi del tempio di lui, e ad essi hai bevuto il vino tu, e i tuoi cortigiani, e le tue mogli, e le tue concubine; ed hai ancor celebrati gli dei d'argento, e d'oro, e di ferro, e di legno, e di pietra, i quali né veggono, né odono, né hanno senso: ma quel Dio, in mano di cui è il tuo respiro, e ogni tuo moto, non lo hai tu glorificato:but against the dominatour of heauen thou wast eleuated: and the vessels of his house haue bene brought before thee: and thou, and thy nobles, and thy wiues, and thy concubins haue drunke wine in them: the goddes also of siluer, and of gold, and of brasse, of yron, and of wood, and of stone that see not, nor heare, nor feele, thou hast praysed: moreouer the God, that hath thy breath in his hand, and al thy wayes, thou hast not glorified.sed adversum Dominatorem cæli elevatus es: et vasa domus ejus allata sunt coram te, et tu, et optimates tui, et uxores tuæ, et concubinæ tuæ vinum bibistis in eis: deos quoque argenteos, et aureos, et æreos, ferreos, ligneosque et lapideos, qui non vident, neque audiunt, neque sentiunt, laudasti: porro Deum, qui habet flatum tuum in manu sua, et omnes vias tuas, non glorificasti. 24Wherefore, he hath sent the part of the hand which hath written this that is set down.Per questo da lui fu mandato il dito di quella mano, la quale ha scritto quello, che è vergato.Therfore from him is the ioynt of the hand sent, which hath written this that is drawen.Idcirco ab eo missus est articulus manus, quæ scripsit hoc quod exaratum est.
25And this is the writing that is written: MANE, THECEL, PHARES.Or tale è la scrittura distesa: MANE, THECEL, PHARES.And this is the writing which is ordered. MANE, THECEL, PHARES.Hæc est autem scriptura, quæ digesta est: Mane, Thecel, Phares. 26And this is the interpretation of the word. MANE: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and hath finished it.E queste parole s'interpretano così: MANE: Dio ha contato i dì del tuo regno, e gli ha posto termine.And this the interpretation of the word. MANE: God hath numbred thy kingdom, and hath finished it.Et hæc est interpretatio sermonis. Mane: numeravit Deus regnum tuum, et complevit illud. 27THECEL: thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting.THECEL: Tu sei stato pesato sulla stadera, e se' stato trovato scarso.THECEL: thou art weighed in the balance, and art found hauing lesse.Thecel: appensus es in statera, et inventus es minus habens. 28PHARES: thy kingdom is divided, and is given to the Medes and Persians.PHARES: E stato diviso il tuo regno, ed è stato dato a' Medi, e ai Persiani.PHARES: thy kingdom is diuided, and is geuen to the Medes, and Persians.Phares: divisum est regnum tuum, et datum est Medis, et Persis. 29Then by the king’s command, Daniel was clothed with purple, and a chain of gold was put about his neck: and it was proclaimed of him that he had power as the third man in the kingdom.Allora per comando del re fu Daniele vestito di porpora, e gli fu messa al collo una collana d'oro, e fu notificato a tutti, com'egli dovea avere il terzo grado di potestà nel suo regno.Then the king commanding Daniel was clothed with purple, and a cheyne of gold was put about his necke: & it was proclamed of him that he had powre the third in the kingdom.Tunc, jubente rege, indutus est Daniel purpura, et circumdata est torques aurea collo ejus: et prædicatum est de eo quod haberet potestatem tertius in regno suo. 30The same night Baltasar, the Chaldean king, was slain.La stessa notte fu ucciso Baltassar re de' Caldei:The same night was Baltassar the king of Chaldee slaine.Eadem nocte interfectus est Baltassar rex Chaldæus. 31And Darius, the Mede, succeeded to the kingdom, being threescore and two years old.E Dario il Medo gli succedette nel regno in età di sessanta due anni.And Darius the Mede succeded into the kingdom, being three score and two yeares old.Et Darius Medus successit in regnum, annos natus sexaginta duos.
5:1
Year of the World 3466, Year before Christ 538.
Challoner
Baltassar. He is believed to be the same as Nabonides, the last of the Chaldean kings, grandson to Nabuchodonosor. He is called his son (ver. 2, 11, etc.) according to the style of the Scriptures, because he was a descendant from him. (Challoner; St. Jerome in Isaiah xiii.; Usher, etc.)
Calmet
Some think that he was brother of Evilmerodac, ver. 11., and Baruch 1:11. But he seems rather to have been his son, Jeremias 27:7. Profane authors place Neriglissor and Laborosoarchod between them. They were not of the royal family, and might be looked upon as usurpers, or reigned in some other place; or they did not meddle with the Jews. (Calmet)
Calmet
It is wonderful that Josephus should prefer these authors; (Tirinus) yet he abandons the dates given by them. (Jewish Antiquities 10:12. et contra Apion 1.) They represent Nabonides as a simple Babylonian raised to the throne, defeated by Cyrus, and suffered to retire into Carmania; whereas, Baltassar was slain, ver. 29. (Calmet)
Worthington
The others were of a different lineage, and are mentioned by Eusebius, etc. Evilmerodac certainly preceded him on the throne, and honoured Joachin in the 37th year of his captivity. (Worthington)
Theodotion
Thousand; or, "for his officers over a thousand men." (Theodotion)
Calmet
Every. Chaldean, "and drank wine before the thousand," more than any, for this was deemed a great perfection; or he drank in their presence, but apart. (Calmet)
Haydock
The Persian monarchs used to sit in a separate apartment, with a veil before the door, so that they could see the guests without being seen. A great chandelier was before them; (Athen. 4:10.) probably on the outside, otherwise it would have defeated their purpose. Light sufficient would appear for Baltassar to see the hand-writing on his chamber wall, ver. 5. (Haydock)
Calmet
According to the order of time, this chapter should be placed after the vii. and viii. (Calmet)
Haydock
But those contain visions. (Haydock)
5:6
Calmet
Loosed, so that he quaked for fear, Ezechiel 29:7. (Calmet)
Haydock
He was not so drunk as to be deprived of sense. (Haydock)
Haydock
This happened in the 17th and last year of his reign, when Daniel was about a hundred years old, (Worthington) though we have no certain account of his age. (Haydock)
Calmet
He might be eighty-two when he died. (Calmet)
5:7
Purple. This and the chain were reserved for the highest nobility.
Third, or one of the three great officers, Daniel 6:1., and 2 Kings 23:8, 19.
5:8
Calmet
Read. It was written in Samaritan characters; or, for want of vowels, could not be read or understood. (Calmet)
5:10
Calmet
The queen. Not the wife, but the mother of the king; (Challoner) Amyit, widow of Nabuchodonosor, and sister of Darius, the Mede; or (Calmet) Nitocris, the mother of Labynithus, (Herod. i.) whom many confound with Baltassar. (Calmet)
5:11
Calmet
Father. So a grandfather might be styled, Jeremias 27:7.(Worthington) ---Daniel was not perhaps at the head of the wise men. (Calmet)
They were too jealous to mention him; and the intoxicated king and courtiers remembered not his merit, till an aged matron suggested that he should be consulted. He was probably (Haydock) in some office, at Susa, yet happened to be then in Babylon, (Calmet) which was besieged; and thither he might have retired at the approached of Cyrus.
5:16
Haydock
Difficult. Literally, "things which are tied," or perplexing. (Haydock)
Chardin
The Persians still use the like expressions, to imply an intelligent governor. (Chardin.)
5:17
Another. He does not refuse the offers, but civilly replies that he will give satisfaction without regard to any recompense.
5:19
Calmet
Slew. He was an absolute monarch, and considered his subjects as so many slaves. (Calmet)
Xerxes having called together his nobles, that he might not seem to have resolved on the war with Greece alone, said: "Nevertheless, remember that you have to obey rather than to advise." (V. Max. 9. 5. 2.)
5:21
Worthington
Beasts. His disordered imagination made him dwell with them. (Worthington)
It is strange that such an example should have been so soon forgotten, that Daniel is forced to repeat it so explicitly, Daniel 4:13.
5:23
Haydock
Vessels. Only part had been returned to Sedecias: (Chap. 1:2.) but they were taken again, and kept in the palace, or in the temple of Bel. (Haydock)
Calmet
Breath, or soul, Genesis 2:7. (Calmet)
5:25
Calmet
Phares. These words consist of three letters, mona, thokol, pros, as we add o merely for pronunciation. Being unconnected and almost destitute of vowels, (Haydock) it is not easy even for the learned to read these words, or to ascertain their meaning. Thus d b r being placed in a similar situation, it would be impossible to determine the sense; as it may have ten different meanings, according as it is pronounced, ver. 8. (Calmet)
Menochius
Mane is twice repeated, to shew the certainty and exactitude of the numbering. (Menochius)
St. Jerome
Yet in the sequel each word occurs once and unconnected, as it is here in the Vulgate; not Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, (Protestants; Haydock) "He hath numbered, numbered, weighed, and the dividers or the Persians" are upon thee, (T.[Tirinus?]) as Dalila said to Samson. Only three words (Haydock) were written. (St. Jerome)
Haydock
The rest contain the prophet's explanation. The Chaldean empire had now attained its utmost height. Its king brought ruin upon himself by his wicked life. (Haydock)
St. Jerome
He would soon be divided with the sword, and his kingdom shared between the Medes and Persians. (St. Jerome)
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Haydock
Persians. Those who confound Baltassar with Nabonides, say that Cyrus made himself master of all the empire. How then was it divided? Darius rather took possession of the greatest part while Cyrus had Persia, (Calmet) till his uncle's death. (Haydock)
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Calmet
Third, or over a third part. (St. Jerome; ver. 7.; Haydock) The honours were conferred without delay, and they would have been made public in the morning. But death prevented the king; and Daniel did not enjoy them till they were ratified by Darius, to whom he adhered. (Calmet)
Worthington
The Medes then besieged the city, which they took that night, when most part were drunk. (Worthington)
St. Jerome
It was a solemn festival, Isaiah xxi. (St. Jerome)
Cyrus rushed in by the channel of the Euphrates, and two of the king's guards slew him to revenge themselves. (Xenoph. 7.; Beros.)
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Year of the World 3466, Year before Christ 538.
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Calmet
Darius. He is called Cyaxares by the historians, and was the son of Astyages, and uncle to Cyrus (Challoner) as well as to Baltassar, by the mother's side. He is styled Astyages, (Chap. 13:65.) or Artaxerxes. (Septuagint, Daniel 6:1.) He takes the title of king both of the Medes and Persians, Daniel 6:8., etc. (Calmet)
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Baltasar.... He is believed to be the same as Nabonydus, the last of the Chaldean kings, grandson to Nabuchodonosor. He is called his son, ver. 2, 11, etc., according to the style of the scriptures, because he was a descendant from him.
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The queen.... Not the wife, but the mother of the king.
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The ruine of this Baltassar. happened in the 17. and last yeare of his reigne: when Daniel was nere an hundred years old.
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the kings mother. v. 11.
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Al progenitors are commonly called the fathers of their of spring: so Nabuchodonosor is called the father of Baltassar being his grand father: as may be gathered ler. 27. v. 27. where is prophecised that Nabuchodonosor and his sonne, and sonnes sonne should reigne ouer manie nations.
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thing vvritten.
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His imagination that he was a beast made him forsake the companie of men, and to dwel amongst wilde beastes. ch. 4.
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The Medes being at this time in the siege of Babylon, tooke their opportunitie to assault it this night, vvhen the king and most part of the citie vvere drunke.
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.23
… The consequence was that Judæa was torn by continual wars, and that the very first things carried away to Babylon were these vessels of the Lord. We find Belshazzar at his feast and among his concubines (vice always glories in defiling what is noble) drinking out of these sacred cups.
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 33
… What House of prayer have I made a burialplace? What liturgical vessels which the multitude may not touch have I given over to the hands of the wicked, of a Nebuzaradan, chief of the cooks, or of a Belshazzar, who wickedly used the sacred vessels for his revels,
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 28
… That the tree may be known by its fruits; I mean, that the darkness which is at work in such teaching may be known by the obscurity of the arguments. For my purpose in doing so was, not to get credit for myself for astonishing utterances, or excessive wisdom, through tying knots and solving difficulties (this was the great miraculous gift of Daniel),
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 3.6
… Lastly, too, the king advanced him because he had the grace of the Spirit. For he speaks thus: “Thou, O Daniel, art able, forasmuch as the Holy Spirit of God is in thee.”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 26
… (This however I conjure you, to choose all things for the fear of God, having such examples; and because in truth we shall obtain the things here also, if we sincerely lay hold on the things which are to come.) For that he did not do this out of arrogance, is evident from his saying, “Thy gifts be to thyself.” (
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 15.13
… (he says, not only the ten, but also all who have been before him;) and he shall subdue three kings ; manifestly out of the ten former kings: but it is plain that by subduing three of these ten, he will become the eighth king; and he shall speak words against the Most High
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 22.22
22. “Save Me from the lion’s mouth:” save Me from the mouth of the kingdom of this world: “and my humility from the horns of the unicorns”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 26
For besides this also again is another question, how while in words he rejected it, in deed he received the honor, and wore the chain [of gold]. (
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 12.19
… Now three score and nine weeks of years contain four hundred and eighty-three years. He said, therefore, that after the building of Jerusalem, four hundred and eighty-three years having passed, and the rulers having failed, then cometh a certain king of another race, in whose time the Christ is to be born. Now Darius the Mede
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BALSASAR THE KING MADE A GREAT FEAST, — in the last year of his reign, in which also Babylon was overthrown, so that Cyrus began to reign as monarch: this therefore was the first year of the monarchy of Cyrus, in which also he himself sent the Jews free from Babylon. You will ask, who was this Balsasar? St. Jerome from Berossus in Josephus, Eusebius and Megasthenes, thinks that in Babylon after Nabuchodonosor there reigned his son Evil-merodach, after him the son Niglissar, after him the son Labosordach: then his son Balsasar. But there could not have been so many generations in so few years, namely 34 years: for so many only passed from the death of Nabuchodonosor to the death of Balsasar. Therefore it is false what Josephus writes, book XI Antiquities XII, that Nabuchodonosor, when he had reigned 25 years after the destruction of Jerusalem, left his kingdom to his son Evil-merodach, and he reigned 18 years: after him Niglissar his son 40 years, after him Labosordach his son nine months: Balsasar succeeded him, in whose 17th year Cyrus conquered Babylon and freed the Jews from there. For if you add up the years of these, you will find a hundred, which would necessarily mean the Babylonian captivity lasted so long; whereas from Jeremiah, chapter XXVII, and from Daniel, chapter II, 2, it is established that it lasted only 70 years. Second, Pererius, Maldonatus, Hugo and others think that Balsasar was the son of Evil-merodach, who was the son of Nabuchodonosor, and therefore Belsasar was his grandson. They prove this, first, because Evil-merodach succeeded Nabuchodonosor, as is clear from IV Kings xxv, 27; therefore Balsasar reigned after Evil-merodach, and consequently was his son. Second, because in Jeremiah XXVII, 7, it is said that to Nabuchodonosor "all nations shall serve, and his son, and his son's son." Who is his son, if not Evil-merodach; who is his son's son, if not Balsasar? Hence Francis Ribera and others thus compute the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity: Nabuchodonosor, they say, reigned 45 years; Evil-merodach 22, Balsasar three, which joined together make 70. But it could be said to Jeremiah XXVII, 7, that there the father is the elder Nabuchodonosor, the son is the younger Nabuchodonosor, who is also called the Great; the son of the son is Balsasar: for these words were spoken to Jeremiah in the year of the reign of Joakim, when the elder Nabuchodonosor still reigned; for the younger began to reign in the fourth year of Joakim. Third, others think that this Balsasar is the son, not the grandson of Nabuchodonosor, and is the same as Evil-merodach. This opinion is very conformable to the words of Daniel: first, because Daniel in these chronicles of the kings of Babylon, after the deeds of Nabuchodonosor, passes immediately to Balsasar; therefore he succeeded him directly. Second, because he always calls him the son of Nabuchodonosor, as is clear from verses 11, 13 and 18. Baruch does the same, chapter I, 1. Third, because by Jeremiah, chapter L, 2, Balsasar is called Merodach, who seems to be the same as Evil-merodach: the same is called by Berossus and Josephus Labonitus and Nabonitus: for the letters L and N are interchanged, as are L and R, being related and liquid letters. Hence for Belial others say Beliar, for Nabuchadneser (that is Nabuchodonosor) in Hebrew is read Nebuchadreser. According to this opinion, to Balsasar, or Evil-merodach, are to be given 34 years of reign (for the years which others give separately to Evil-merodach are to be joined to the years of Balsasar, since he was one and the same king); if you add these 34 years to the 36 years of Nabuchodonosor, you will complete the 70 years of captivity, which begin from the 11th year of Joakim, which was the 8th of Nabuchodonosor, and end in the last year of Balsasar, which was the first of Cyrus. For Nabuchodonosor in all reigned 44 years. Feast. — In Chaldaic it is lechem, that is bread, that is a banquet. For thus bread in Scripture by synecdoche signifies any foods and feasts. In Greek δεῖπνον, that is supper. For the ancients did not dine, but supped, as is clear from Athenaeus in the Deipnosophists, or On the Suppers of the Wise. Hence any banquet was called a supper. Note here the wonderful madness or presumption of Balsasar, that with the enemy near and the city besieged by him, he indulges in drunkenness with all his; whence justly as a punishment for drunkenness and sacrilege, by which he profaned the sacred vessels by applying them to his gluttony, on that same night he was deprived of both kingdom and life. Many think that Balsasar, confident in his own strength and resources and the fortification of the city, besieged by Cyrus and the Persians, indulged in pleasure and held feasts, so that he might show that he did not fear the Persians or care about them: just as Epaminondas, besieged by enemies insulting him, ordered his soldiers to devote themselves to feasts and games, so that he might show that he despised the jeers of the enemy: Diodorus is witness, book XII. The same is narrated to have been done by Viriathus the Lusitanian besieged by the Romans by Florus. EACH ONE DRANK ACCORDING TO HIS AGE. — Because each one reclined according to his age, and received the cup earlier or later, namely the more dignified and the elders first, the younger afterwards. For they were distributed in order through the tables and classes in such a way that the king could drink first and offer a toast to each class in order. For these satraps appear to have been equal in office and dignity, so that among them only he who was the elder was more dignified. For in a similar manner Darius divided the kingdom into 120 satrapies, and the satraps equal, as it appears. For he set three tristatas over all of them, cap. VI, 1 and 2. The Septuagint, Pagninus, Vatablus and others translate: Before a thousand (magnates and leaders) the king drank wine; for the king alone was at one table, opposite those thousand who reclined at another table. For the Chaldean אלפא alpha signifies both a thousand and him who is better, more dignified, chief, and thus our author understood it. Whence thus you would translate word for word: Each one drank according to what he was alpha, that is, elder and more dignified. Moreover the Scholiast explains, as if to say, "Each of their thousand had a crater of wine, and his own cupbearer. For this is customary among the Persians."
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2. THEREFORE HE COMMANDED ALREADY DRUNK. — "The Hebrews relate, says St. Jerome, such a fable: until the seventieth year, in which Jeremiah said the captivity of the Jews would be ended, Belshazzar feared for his rule; but when that was completed, thinking God's promise mocked, he turned to rejoicing, made a great feast, in a way insulting the hope of the Jews and the vessels of the temple of God; but immediately vengeance followed," while in this feast Belshazzar was slain, and Babylon was captured. See here to what depths drunkenness led Belshazzar. Hear St. Basil, homil. On Drunkenness: Water does not extinguish fire, wine extinguishes reason: the waters of the sea sink ships, wine sinks the vines of men: the souls of the drunk are submerged in wine. Vigilance and sobriety make men, drunkenness makes beasts out of men. Hence Isaiah says, cap. XXVIII, 7: "They are absorbed by wine." The drunk absorb wine, but are absorbed by wine. And the Wise Man, Proverb. XXIII, 34: "You will be as one sleeping at the helm, having lost the nail." For the drunk loses the nail of reason. Secondly, drunkenness, just as it extinguishes the use of reason, so it stirs up depraved desires of the mind. Isaiah V, 11: "Woe to you that rise up in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink even till evening, that you may be inflamed with wine!" The Septuagint translates: For wine will kindle or burn them. See the sayings there. Whence St. Basil calls the drunk a voluntary demon. Therefore the drunk is worse than a demon, because the demon is a voluntary demon, whereas the demon is involuntarily a demon. The demoniacs are tormented by a demon, but unwillingly and by force: but the drunk is tormented by drunkenness, because it pleases him.
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Thirdly, drunkenness makes the mouth, eyes, nostrils, and all the organs of the senses the most bitter and foul sewers of pleasure, so that the drunk are not men, but swine, indeed more loathsome than swine. St. Augustine, serm. 231 On the Seasons, says the drunken are like filthy marshes, in whose foul water serpents, frogs and worms are born. Fourthly, St. Paul to the Ephesians V, 18: "Do not, he says, be drunk with wine, in which is luxury." St. Jerome, lib. II Against Jovinian, cap. VI: "The eating of meat, he says, and the drinking of wine, and the satiety of the belly, is a seedbed of lust;" for "without Ceres and Bacchus Venus grows cold." Hear a horrible example, which the author of a sermon to the Brethren in the desert relates, in St. Augustine, serm. 33: "Behold, he says, today, having suffered drunkenness, he wickedly oppressed a pregnant mother, wished to violate his sister, killed his father, wounded two sisters unto death." Fifthly, the more the belly is filled, the more the senses of the mind are dulled, and man becomes dull. For from a gross belly a subtle sense cannot be born. Again, as St. Chrysostom says hom. 1 to the People: "Not so is the nature of the earth vexed by the superabundance of waters continually dissolved, as the way of the body is softened, flows away, and becomes thin by wine continually gulped down." Sixthly, St. Augustine above: "Let the drunken consider, he says, whether they are not to be judged worse than animals. For whereas animals are unwilling to drink more than they need, they accept double and triple the drink that is expedient for them." Seventhly, the drunk from excess continually doze, are heavy-headed, yawn, have dimness in their eyes, nausea in their stomach. And, as St. Basil says: "You can see them with livid eyes, with pallid skin, with heavy breath, with stammering tongue, with low and confused voice, with feet weak and tottering like those of children." Wherefore Anacharsis judged the best remedy for drunkenness to be to behold the indecorous and foul manners of the drunk, which are such that St. Chrysostom, homil. 1 to the People, calls drunkenness the disgrace of the human race. Hence the Lacedaemonians showed drunken slaves to boys, so that they might see how foul a spectacle a drunken man is, and how like he is to one insane.
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Eighth, Athenaeus, book XI, calls a great silver cup a well, into which namely the drunkard falls, suffocating his soul and reason, and plunging himself and all his possessions. And St. Augustine above calls drunkenness a well of hell. See more things noted about drunkenness at Genesis XIX, at the end. 5. IN THAT SAME HOUR THERE APPEARED FINGERS AS IT WERE OF THE HAND OF A MAN. — Lyra from the word "as" supposes that this hand did not truly exist, but only in the phantasy of the king, whence it was not seen by others. But both are false. For Scripture says that this hand wrote upon the wall mane, tekel, phares; and that Daniel read these writings there; while the others saw the letters, but could neither read nor interpret them. He says therefore "as the hand of a man," because it was truly not the hand of a man, but similar to it, formed from condensed air, and assumed by an angel, who through it wrote upon the wall. WRITING AGAINST THE CANDLESTICK, — so that namely from the light of the nearby candlestick this writing could be read: for in the nocturnal supper, a candlestick and light were needed. Thus St. Jerome. Moreover the hand writing appeared, not the writer himself, so that the king might see snares being prepared for him, and death being plotted; but he would be wholly ignorant of the author: and thus he would see only the joints, not recognize the hand, says Pineda in Job chapter XVII, 10.
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OF THE ROYAL COURT, — so that the king and the guests might know that this writing pertained to them, says St. Jerome. Here was verified that common proverb: "Where there is plenty, there is trouble; where there is honey, there is gall;" which Plautus in the Amphitryon declares in these words: "Thus it has pleased the gods, that from the same height pleasure and its companion sorrow should follow." 8. NEITHER COULD THEY READ THE WRITING. — You ask, why? Some Hebrews answer, because this writing was Hebrew, not Chaldean, whence it could not be read by the Chaldeans: but even if we grant it was Hebrew, who would believe that none of the Chaldeans knew Hebrew? especially since Hebrew and Chaldean differ only in dialect, just as Attic and Doric. Second, Rabbi Saadias answers, that they could not read it, because the letters were changed or transposed: but as this is invented, so it is rejected. Third, others answer that these were foreign, extraordinary and unusual letters. Thus Pineda, book V On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter XIII. Fourth, others, that the Chaldeans were hindered by God, so that this glory might be reserved for Daniel. Fifth, more probably Maldonatus and Antonius Fernandius, Vision XXIII, section 1, think that only the initial letters of each word were written, namely M. T. P. For thus Hebrew typographers at the beginning of a work ascribe some verse of a psalm through initial letters only, and thus Machabi was formed, that is, Maccabaeus, from the initial letters of Exodus XV, 11: Mi camocha baelim Jehova, that is: Who is like unto thee among the strong, O Lord? For the Maccabees bore this emblem, as it were a badge of war and victory, before their camps.
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Thus also the Emperor Valens, having inquired of a necromancer who would reign after him, the magus answered that it would be he whose name's first letters are THEOD. (the demon indicated the Emperor Theodosius). Wherefore Valens ordered all who were called Theodore, or Theodosius, or Theodulus, to be killed, says Socrates, book IV, chapter XV.
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So also to the Emperor Maurice (because he had resisted St. Gregory, and had not come to the aid of Rome when besieged by Aistulph) it was divinely revealed that he was to be killed, and deprived of empire by him whose name began with PH. For this reason Philippicus, the husband of Maurice's sister, was brought under suspicion of aspiring to empire. But soon Maurice understood in sleep through a vision that he with his wife and sons was to be killed by Phocas. Phocas therefore, raised from a soldier to emperor, slaughtered Maurice; but he was patient and gave thanks to God, that He chastised him in this life rather than in the other. Whence at the slaughter of each of his sons before his eyes, he exclaimed: "Thou art just, O Lord, and Thy judgment is right." Thus Cedrenus, Nicephorus, and from them Baronius, in the year of Christ 602. So to the city, when it was gentile, the name Rome was as it were prophetically given, as a sign that avarice was to be destroyed by Christ. For Rome, if it be explained through individual letters, is the same as the root of occurring usuries and avarice, says Alexander Angelus, doctor of theology, in the Summa, part VI, cap. XXXIII. For Christ, overthrowing and converting the city and the gentile world, gaping after goods and earth, taught and inspired contempt for earthly things, and love of heavenly things, and made us citizens of heaven, guests and sojourners on earth. Sixthly and genuinely, the Chaldeans and Hebrews wrote consonant letters alone without points, or vowels. Whence the Chaldeans did not know what points should be substituted here, namely whether it should be read mane, or mina, or meno, or tekel, or tokel, or takal. Again, although they could substitute some points for each, and thus read them; yet they could not connect them with one another, so as to draw out some suitable and certain sense, especially because individual words were to be explained through the entire sentence, as Daniel explains them in verse 26. 10. THE QUEEN, etc., ENTERED, — namely the mother of Belshazzar, or Labonitus, who was a most wise woman, says Herodotus. Thus Origen, Theodoret and others. Secondly, Josephus says this queen was the grandmother of the king. Thirdly, others think this queen was the wife of the king. For she speaks as a queen, that is as a wife. You will say: The wife sat beside the king at the banquet in verse 2; how then is she said here to have entered the house of the banquet? I answer: The dining rooms of women and men were separated at this banquet according to custom. This wife therefore did not sit beside the king, but rose from the dining room of the women, and entered into the dining room of the king and men, in which the hand writing on the wall had appeared. The first opinion seems more true. For he speaks of the deeds of Daniel under Nebuchadnezzar, as one older and wiser than Belshazzar, and as their witness and confidant. For as St. Jerome says: "She knows the past things which the king does not know. Let Porphyry therefore be ashamed, who dreams her to be the wife of Belshazzar; and he mocks her for knowing more than her husband." Moreover, the mothers of kings, who were queens before them, even while their sons reign, are accustomed to be called queens. 11. There is a man in the kingdom, — namely Daniel. You will say: Daniel is here introduced as if unknown. But this does not seem to be true. For he was very well known from the oracles and dreams declared in chapters II, III, IV, indeed he had been made by Nebuchadnezzar prefect over all Babylon. I answer: Thirty-four years had elapsed from that time, during which oblivion of those oracles had crept in: especially because, after Nebuchadnezzar's death, Belshazzar succeeding him advanced others as his familiars, but removed Daniel from the prefecture of Babylon. Whence Daniel then seems to have been deprived of this prefecture. We gather this from verse 16 where the king promises Daniel that he will make him third in the kingdom as a prince, if he can read the writing: therefore then he was not a prince. Yet he was held in honor by the king on account of his wisdom, and on account of the position which he had held under Nebuchadnezzar, and was his guest, and honored above all his friends, as will be said in chapter XXV, 1: yet he did not attend this last and fatal banquet of the king: because he withdrew, foreseeing this hand, and his unhappy end. And so he arranged his affairs, and gave himself to prayer, that the calamity which he could not avert, he might at least mitigate: and he prepared himself for the destruction of Babylon, and the coming of the new kings, namely Darius and Cyrus. Daniel therefore was known to Belshazzar, not as a prophet, but as a most prudent man, who under his father Nebuchadnezzar had ruled the whole empire. The queen therefore makes him known to the king through these things as a prophet.
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12. Of the Bound — of secrets, and difficult to explain: for things which are bound cannot be known and perceived, unless they are loosed and explained. Hence St. Chrysostom in Psalm XCV calls Daniel "a spiritual book of the scriptures," because to explain letters and hidden things he had no need of study and reading of books; but he contained them in himself, and read them as it were in a book.
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Thus a captive Christian woman among the Iberians, when she had healed the Iberian queen of disease by the power of Christ, being ordered by the king to be rewarded with gifts, replied that she had no need whatsoever of riches, asserting that she held piety as her riches, and that the king would receive the greatest gift if he would acknowledge the God whom she worshipped. Having spoken thus, she returned the gifts. Thus Socrates, lib. I Histor. cap. XVI. Thus did St. Hilarion act; for Orionus, a man of principal rank and the richest of the city of Aila, being possessed by a legion of demons, after some months was healed by St. Hilarion, not without a miracle: not long after he came to the monastery with his wife and children, bringing gifts as if to render great thanks. To whom the Saint said: "Have you not read what Gehazi, what Simon suffered? the one of whom accepted payment, the other offered it, so that the one might sell the grace of the Holy Spirit, the other might traffic in it?" And when Orionus weeping said: Accept and give to the poor; he answered: "You are better able to distribute your own, you who walk through cities and know the poor; I who have left mine, why should I seek after another's? for many the name of the poor is an occasion of avarice; but mercy has no art. No one distributes better than he who reserves nothing for himself." And to him sad and lying on the ground: "Do not, he said, be sorrowful, my son; what I do, I do for me and for you. For if I accept these things, I too shall offend God, and the legion will return to you." Another demoniac healed by Hilarion, offering ten pounds of gold in rustic simplicity, received from him barley bread, he saying: "Those who are nourished by such food count gold as dirt." Thus St. Jerome in the Life of St. Hilarion. When in Sicily one of the chief men, swollen with a skin disease, on the same day on which he had come to Hilarion, was healed, afterwards offering him infinite gifts, he heard from Hilarion the word of the Saviour to his disciples: "Freely you have received, freely give." Thus St. Jerome in the same place.
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When Eusebius the eunuch brought a great sum of gold to Liberius the Roman Pontiff, who had been ordered into exile by the Caesar Constantius, by command of the same Caesar, under a false pretext, Liberius refused it, adding: "You have plundered the churches of the whole world, and now you bring alms to me as to one condemned and in need? Go first and become a Christian yourself." Thus Theodoretus, lib. II Eccles. Histor., cap. XVI. When St. Martin by the power of Christ had freed a certain house from plague, they offered a hundred pounds of silver as an honorarium gift: which when he refused to accept, his disciples, bearing this ill, said that that money could have relieved their poverty, and that such a great gift ought not rashly to have been rejected by the needy. To which he replied: "The Church of Christ clothes us and feeds us. Freely you have received, freely give." Thus Severus Sulpitius, Dialog. III. Again Daniel here gave an example to the counsellors of princes, that they should despise gifts. Blessed are the princes who have such counsellors, or who adopt them. Plato said that no more excellent kind of possession existed for princes than the familiarity of those who did not know how to traffic. 21. HIS HEART WAS SET WITH THE BEASTS,—he had a heart, that is a fancy and appetite not so much human as bestial; and therefore he fled from men and desired to dwell with beasts; whence in fact he went to them and dwelt with them. 23. He who holds your breath (your vital breath, your very life) in his hand.—Who therefore would not fear God, in whose hand is the breath of life, the soul, eternity, our salvation and damnation? 24. THEREFORE FROM HIM WAS SENT THE JOINT OF THE HAND,—that is the hand with fingers and joints moving and writing, as is said in verse 5. Note: In Chaldaic it is pasa di ieda, that is a part, or as Pagninus translates it, the palm of the hand, namely severed from the arm. Thus Vatablus. Others understand by the joint of the hand a finger, as if on the wall not the whole hand, but only a finger appeared writing. Whence the Syriac translates: In that same hour the fingers of the hand of a man went forth and wrote against the lamp; and the Arabic Alexandrian: In that hour the fingers of the hands went forth from the wall against the lamp over the cup, the king seeing the palm of the man writing. Yet in the last words it indicates that there was a whole palm and hand, and this seems both more fitting and more true, and the Arabic Antiochene asserts it clearly: In that hour, it says, the palm of the hand and the fingers of a man went forth from the wall, writing opposite the lamp. The same is clearly said in verse 5: "And the king beheld the joints of the hand that wrote."
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Note that the Syriac and Arabic versions say that these fingers and hand came forth from the wall of the hall and dining room, in which the king was drinking from sacred vessels: for hence the punishment comes forth, where the fault is committed. Whence also the Alexandrian Arabic adds, over the cup, etc., writing. Note: This hand signifies the justice of God, which is watchful and intent upon every sinner and bears down upon him, and cut off Belshazzar in life, strength and kingdom: for this is conscious of all the works of man, judge and avenger, and leaves nothing unpunished, and compensates for the slowness of punishment by its severity. Symbolically, the hand is conscience, by which God in each man's own conscience so describes his sins and punishments, that whether he will or not he sees them. How true was that in Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar: "Fortune is glass; while it shines it breaks!" 25. WHICH WAS WRITTEN. — In Chaldean, which was traced, and consequently ordered, as the Septuagint translates it. MENE, TEKEL, PHARES. — The Syriac translates: Mno, Tekal, and Pharsin. This is the interpretation of the word (saying) Mno: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and hath delivered it. Tekal, he hath weighed; thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting; Phras, he hath divided; thy kingdom is divided (torn), and is given to the Medes and Persians. It could also be translated, phras, that is, he hath spread it out, and exposed it to the prey of enemies. The Vatican codex reads, mno mne, that is, he hath numbered by numbering, which the Hebrews say, by numbering he hath numbered, that is, he hath fully and plainly numbered thy kingdom, so that it is altogether numbered, and nothing of it remains to be numbered. Thus also this word mno, in the Arabic text is always doubled and repeated. Whence the Antiochian Arabic has thus: By computation it is computed, and by weight it is weighed, and it is divided. And in this manner is the interpretation: By numbering the number is computed, because God hath comprehended thy kingdom and delivered it. And by weight thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting. It is divided; thy kingdom is divided, and is given to the Medes and Persians. The Alexandrian Arabic has thus: He hath numbered, God hath numbered thy kingdom, weighed, numbered. And this is now the interpretation: God hath indeed already taken thy kingdom, and delivered it to others besides thee. But weighed: because thou art weighed in the balance, and art found to have less of good. Thy kingdom is divided, and is given to the Medes and Persians. Moreover the original Chaldean writing itself, or the very words of the writing thus have: מניה מכר ופרסין mene mene, tekel, upharsin: he hath numbered, he hath numbered (that is, he hath numbered most exactly and certainly), he hath weighed, and dividing, namely are, that is, they divide thy kingdom, the Persians and Medes. For upharsin, in verse 28, there is peres, that is, he hath divided, that is, God will now certainly divide thy kingdom, and this more aptly corresponds to the two other past tenses. Fernandius notes, vision XXIII, he hath numbered, to hint that the days of the king will be short: for those things of which there is abundance, we are not accustomed to number, but those things of which there is scarcity and want. Hence that saying: "It is the poor man's part to number his flock." Secondly, it can be translated by the imperative: number; weigh, and dividing, namely be. For this hand dictates the sentence of God. Whence it commands saying: Number, weigh, divide. But because the sentence of God is efficacious, and forthwith executes its commands; hence number is the same as he hath numbered; weigh, that is, he hath weighed; divide, that is, he hath divided. Note: Upharsin can be translated first, and dividing; secondly, and Persians; for Pharsin are Persians, as if to say, The Persians press upon thee, O Belshazzar! who with the Medes divide thy kingdom. Thus Arias Montanus. Thus the son of Judah, the twin brother of Zerah, was called by the midwife Phares. For she said when he was being born before Zerah: "Why is the wall broken down for thee?" Gen. cap. XXXVIII, 29. 26. God hath numbered thy kingdom (namely the years of thy reign and of the empire of the Chaldeans, and by numbering them) hath completed, — that is, first, he hath found them to be completed: for this is the seventieth and last year appointed to the Chaldean empire by God, through Jeremiah, cap. XXIX, 10. Secondly, "hath completed," that is, by his decree he hath determined that they be now completed and finished.
5:27
Hear similar portents. A certain judge of Antioch, on the day before Julian the Apostate perished, keeping watch near the praetorium, saw a gathering of stars which expressed letters to this effect: "Today Julian is slain in Persia." Thus Zonaras. Above the threshold of the palace of Adrianople, among other hieroglyphic signs, there was found a verse which signified that someone from the family of the Palaeologi would soon die. Michael, son of the Emperor Andronicus, died there shortly after. Thus Gregoras, book VII. Again, which properly pertains to this matter: when Darius Hystaspes was besieging Babylon and could not capture it, the mule of Zopyrus gave birth. Whence Zopyrus received an omen of the city's capture: for he had heard from a certain Babylonian that the city would be captured when a mule gave birth. He therefore mutilated himself shamefully, and thus deserted to the Babylonians, lying that he had been thus mutilated by Darius; wherefore he was made by them commander of the army and guardian of the walls, and he delivered the city to Darius. Thus Herodotus, book III. When Xerxes invaded Greece with so many forces: "A mare brought forth a hare, which was easy to conjecture; for it was to be expected that Xerxes would lead his army against Greece with the greatest tumult and most ambitiously, and again, anxious for himself, would flee back to the same place. Another prodigy also was shown to him at Sardis: for a mule gave birth to a mule," says Herodotus, book VII. Thus Nero in the fable of Oedipus, which he recited as his last, fell upon this verse: θανεῖν μ' ἄνωγε σύγγαμος, μήτηρ, πατήρ. "My spouse, mother, and father commanded me to die." For Oedipus had unknowingly slain his father and married his mother: thus Nero, knowingly slew Claudius his father, killed his mother after violating her, and treated his wife Octavia in unworthy ways. Thus Suetonius in Nero. Similar is what Plutarch relates in the Royal Apophthegms concerning Dionysius the tyrant, but more happily: that when magistrates were created by lot through letters, and the letter μ fell to him, when someone said to Dionysius in jest μωρολογήσεις, that is, "you will speak foolishly"; rather, said he, μοναρχήσω, "I shall be a monarch," and having obtained the magistracy he was straightway elected Emperor by the Syracusans. It was a sign of great spirit that he was not offended by that jest, being content to interpret the omen of the letter differently, and this paved the way for him to empire. In a similar manner, but with a better signification and lot, St. Wolfgang appeared to St. Henry, Duke of Bavaria, husband of St. Cunegunda, and showed him written on the wall: "After six." Henry, thinking after six days, then after six weeks, then after six months, finally after six years he would die, prepared himself for death. But the event declared something happier was portended to him, namely empire: for after six years he was created emperor. Thus the Life of St. Henry, chapter II, which our Gretserius published in the Saints of Bamberg, has it. 27. Tekel. — The Hebrews say sakal, that is, he weighed, he balanced: whence the shekel is named. For the ancients weighed money according to weight, as the shekel had the weight of four drachmas. For the Chaldeans in many Hebrew names substitute tau for shin, namely they put ת for ש: as for sekel they say tekel, for schelas they say telas. THOU ART WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE, AND ART FOUND WANTING, — "Wanting" namely in days, which your age and nature demanded: for before the day of your natural death, in the strength of your age you shall be snatched away by violent death, say St. Jerome and Maldonatus. But this youthful age is not usually weighed by God in the balance. I say therefore: He alludes to money of lighter weight, which is usually rejected, as if to say: Your works, good and evil, O Belshazzar, have been weighed in the balance, and, as it is in Chaldean, in the balance of divine justice and examination, and you are found to have less probity and good works; but to have much pride, gluttony, and iniquity; therefore you do not deserve to reign or to live any longer. Whence the Arabic Alexandrian version translates: You are found to have less of good.
5:28
Theodoretus notes that there is nothing with God that is not weighed, and therefore God's mercy and gentleness are applied to men with a certain weight and measure. Whence it is said in Wisdom XI, 21: "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight." Properly indeed God weighs good and evil deeds in the balance of His judgment. Whence Job cap. VI, 2: "O that my sins, whereby I have deserved His wrath, and the calamity which I suffer, were weighed in a balance!" See also Matt., cap. XXIII, vers. 32. Thus Virgil, lib. XII of the Aeneid, introduces Jupiter judging thus justly concerning the fates and lots of Aeneas and Turnus: Jupiter himself holds two scales in equal balance, and imposes the different fates of both: whom labor condemns, and to which side death inclines by weight. Now in this balance of God, virtue alone has weight: for God does not weigh, or esteem gold, silver, principalities, prelacies, etc., which are in price among men and are weighed by them; but He weighs only justice, that is, virtues and good works: for these work the eternal weight of glory. Whence Prov. XVI, 2, it is said: "The Lord is a weigher of spirits." In this balance St. Job wished to be weighed, saying, cap. XXXI, 6: "Let me be weighed in a just balance," Hebrew of justice, "and let God know my simplicity." Wherefore Belshazzar, lacking justice and virtues, when weighed in God's balance with all his pomp and glory, was found wanting, that is, light and vain. Hence excluded from kingdom and life he hears: "Thy kingdom is divided," because he himself through impiety had divided himself from God. Whence Psalm LXI, 10, it is said: "The children of men are liars in the balances, that they themselves may deceive from vanity into the same thing;" or, as others translate: The children of men are liars if they be put in the balances, they themselves are equally lighter than vanity, as if to say: This is the vanity and deceit of mortals and worldly things, so that if they themselves be placed in one scale, and in the other true vanity and emptiness, that will without doubt outweigh. Again this balance is a symbol of exact equity and justice: hence among the ancient Romans the image of equity was a certain virgin, holding in her left hand a spear, in her right hand a just balance, as may be seen on the coins of Galba, Vitellius and Vespasian. For these emperors, that they might signify themselves to be lovers of equity, caused it to be engraved on their coins. Thus before the Romans the ancient Greeks depicted justice as a virgin, who held in her left hand a balance, in her right hand a sword, as if the avenger of violated justice. Whence Orpheus in his hymns among Stobaeus thus addresses her: "O most just goddess, blessed to mortals, desirable! who always rejoicing in just men on account of goodness, venerable, most happy, glorious justice, who with pure mind givest to each his due, so that thou breakest all whole, as many as do not undergo thy balance, but beyond it incline the scales with hard insatiableness. This is what the Wise man says, Prov. XVI, 11: Weight and balance are the judgments of the Lord." And Isaiah cap. XXVIII, 17: "I will lay judgment in weight, and justice in measure." And cap. XXVII, 8: "In measure against measure, when it shall be cast off, thou shalt judge it." God therefore has a most just and faithful balance, in which He weighed the life and merits of Belshazzar, and will weigh those of all of us. Hence Abbot George among Sophronius in the Spiritual Meadow: "Woe, he says, to us, brethren! because we have no compunction, but live in negligence, when the wrath of God seizes us, and we are thrust in to be judged; and on the following day fire appeared in the sky," an index and threat of this balance.
5:29
Thus Peter the Publican, sick, saw in a dream all his deeds weighed in a balance by Moors and Whites; and when the Moors placed in one scale all his sins, which he had committed from youth and of which he was forgetful, the Whites finding nothing else, placed in the other scale one loaf, which he, though reluctant, had given to a poor man: and thus equality was made; then they said to him: "Go and increase this loaf; for truly these Ethiopians will seize thee." Whence waking he changed his life, and from a miser became a most generous almsgiver, so that he did not even spare his own body. Thus it is found in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver written by Leontius. Thus the merits of St. Henry the Emperor, who was the husband of St. Cunegunda, and lived chastely with her, were after death weighed in a balance between angels and demons, and when the scales were alternately raised and lowered by his merits and demerits, St. Lawrence intervened, who settled the dispute. For a house received from Henry and given to his church, he placed in the other scale among his merits: by which it came to pass that it became heavier and raised the other on high, and outweighed it, and in this way the angels became victors, and snatching Henry's soul from the demons took it into their company. This matter is narrated at length in the Life of St. Henry, cap. XXVIII.
5:30
But hear the merits of Charlemagne weighed in the balance. John Turpin, Archbishop of Rheims, relates the matter in the Life of Charles, chapter XXXII: "When," he says, "at Vienna in the church before the altar, one day rapt in ecstasy while I persisted in prayers, I perceived innumerable dark bands of soldiers passing before me and tending toward Lotharingia. When all had passed through, I beheld one of them resembling an Ethiopian, following the others with slow step behind. To him I said: Where are you going? He answered: To Aachen, to the death of Charles, that we might seize his spirit and drag it to the infernal regions. To him I said: I adjure you by the name of the Lord God our Jesus Christ, that when you have completed your journey, you do not refuse to return to me. Then, having waited a little, scarcely had the psalm been finished when they returned to me in the same order, and I said to the last one with whom I had previously spoken: What have you done? And the demon said: Gallicianus, without a head, suspended so many and such great stones and timbers of his basilicas in the balance, that the good deeds weighed more than his evils, and therefore he took his soul from us. And, these things being said, the demon vanished; thus I understood that on that same day Charles departed from this life, and by the aid of Blessed James, whose churches he had built many, was deservedly conveyed to the heavenly kingdoms." He then adds a confirmation of the vision: "After fifteen days had passed since his death, through a messenger I learned that from the very time when he had departed from Spain until the day of his death he had been continuously ill, and on that same day and hour in which I had seen the vision, namely the fifth of the Kalends of February, in the year of the Lord 814, he departed from this life, and was honorably buried at Aachen in the round basilica of Blessed Mary, which he himself had built." Thus this author, with whom let the credibility rest; for he inscribes himself as Turpin, Archbishop of Rheims, inasmuch as it is established that he died before Charlemagne. Wherefore Papyrius Masonus thinks this little book was written by an idle man for the sake of youth shortly after Charles the Bald: nevertheless its version is preserved in the royal Library in Gaul. Hence also Cardinal Baronius, in the year of Christ 814, treating of the death of Charlemagne, Antonius Possevinus in the Bibliography, under the name Turpin, and others, call him fabulous, indeed charge him with falsehood. 28. THY KINGDOM IS DIVIDED,—now, now, that is, this very night: thy kingdom separated from thee and taken away, shall be divided between the Medes and the Persians. Hear these things, ye drunkards, hear, ye intoxicated, who sit at tables, rejoice, laugh, sing, drink; all things are joyful to you, all pleasant: but you do not see the hand of God stretched out over you. "Mene," God hath numbered thy life, and shall soon complete it, perhaps in this hour, perhaps in this drunkenness of thine. God from eternity decreed for thee the day and hour of thy death: He said: In this hour, in this moment thou shalt die: perhaps this very hour is thy fatal hour. "Tekel," thou art weighed in the balance, and art found to have less sobriety, less reason, less virtue; but much excess, much madness, much vice. "Peres," thy kingdom is divided, thou thyself art divided; thy body shall be given to worms to devour, thy soul to demons: thy goods shall be seized either by perverse heirs, or by greedy executors, or by unjust superiors. See with what thou hast fattened thy body; see with what labor thou hast heaped together riches by fair means and foul. Tropologically, these three things, says Pererius, are terrible to sinners: first, "Mene," that is, the number of life, that is, death; second, "Tekel," that is, judgment; third, "Peres," that is, hell, by which we are divided and separated from God, heaven, the Saints and eternal life forever. These three things hang over the neck of each one: meanwhile blind men feast, revel, dance, caper about; and they do not fear this sword hanging over their head, because they do not see it. Gregory of Tours relates, in book V of the History of the Franks at the end, that St. Salvius said to him: "Dost thou see what I am suspecting over this roof?" to which I said: I see over the tile which the king recently ordered to be placed. But he, drawing deep sighs, said: I see the sword of divine wrath drawn and hanging over this house. Nor did the vision deceive him; for after twenty-two days the sons of the king, whom we wrote above had died, passed away. Cicero relates in the fifth book of his Tusculan Disputations that Dionysius the tyrant, to Damocles his flatterer, who often spoke of that man's blessed fortune, made clear how great a terror always hangs over kings and tyrants, even if they seem most fortunate, in this manner: he ordered a man to be placed on a golden couch and most beautiful coverings, and adorned many tables with silver and wrought gold; then he ordered handsome youths of exceptional form to stand at table and to serve him at his nod; there were present perfumes, garlands, incense was burned, tables were heaped with the most exquisite foods. Damocles seemed fortunate to himself. In the midst of this splendid display, he ordered a gleaming sword suspended from the ceiling by a horsehair to be let down, so that it hung over the head of that blessed man. Then he began to be terrified and wholly fixed his gaze on the sword: now he no longer looked at the handsome servants, nor at the table full of silver work, nor did he stretch out his hand to the table; now even the garlands themselves fell away. Finally he begged the tyrant to allow him to depart, because he no longer wished to be blessed. Let all those devoted to pleasure apply this to themselves, and when they are in the midst of feasts and luxuries, let them gaze upon the sword of divine justice and hell hanging over them: thus let them learn to spurn and restrain harmful pleasures. Finally, from the fact that Daniel interpreted "mene, tekel, phares" in such a way that he expounded each word by individual sentences, the ancient Rabbis appear to have invented the cabalistic mode of interpreting and writing, by which they explain not only complete sentences of Holy Scripture, but also syllables and individual letters separately, as if something of mystery lay hidden in each; thus cabala gradually passed into superstition and abuse. Again, the mode of writing by rasce tebot, that is by the beginnings of words, as for example bbe, which is the same as beresent bara elohim, that is "in the beginning God created." Hence our Raderus in book XIV of Martial, epigram 202, and others, hold that the Romans received this from the Hebrews, namely the mode of writing by notes (which notaries in tribunals used to write down the individual words of judges and martyrs): therefore not Cicero, nor Maecenas, as some wish, but long before them the Hebrews were the inventors of this writing. 29. DANIEL WAS CLOTHED IN PURPLE. — Purple and a golden torque were formerly the insignia of kings, as is evident from the books of Maccabees. The king honors Daniel so greatly, although he is the messenger of evil tidings, either because he thought this calamity remote and long to be deferred; or so that through Daniel he might placate God and avert the calamity. Thus St. Jerome. THAT HE SHOULD HAVE POWER, THE THIRD IN THE KINGDOM. — Namely the first in the kingdom was the king, the second the queen, the third Daniel, says Maldonatus. Otherwise St. Jerome, as if to say: He made Daniel to be triumvir, or one of the three princes of the kingdom: for thus shortly after Darius the Mede appointed three over the whole kingdom, as is evident in chapter VI, 2.
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30. THE SAME NIGHT. — Not of the same year, but of the following year, says Alcazar from Guevara in the Apocalypse XVI, verse 12, note 2. For indeed the Chaldeans were accustomed to feast on the same night each year, keeping vigil for a certain god; such as Livy, book XXIII, records the Campanians celebrated, when Gracchus invaded them at all the gates simultaneously. But the context itself suggests that Babylon was captured on the same night of that same year. For "the same night" is to be referred to "Mene, Tekel, Phares," that is to say, on the same night of that feast, when the king saw the avenging hand writing against him the sentence of death, he was slain. For a sentence, especially one so efficacious and miraculous, is not usually deferred to another year: nor is it likely that Cyrus with such great forces besieged Babylon for a whole year and more. Nor does it hinder that "it was proclaimed of him (Daniel), that he should have power third in his kingdom" (of Belshazzar). For that was proclaimed and announced among the magnates, of whom a thousand were present at the feast, there and on the same night by the king's command. For God's exemplary punishments, especially against the sacrilegious (such as this was), are wont to be sudden and precipitous. BELSHAZZAR WAS SLAIN, — Babylon having been captured by Cyrus. Therefore false is what Josephus writes from Berossus, book I Against Apion, that Cyrus, having captured Babylon, received King Belshazzar kindly (whom he himself calls Nabonidus), and assigned Carmania to him for habitation. Xenophon in book VII, and Herodotus in book I, and from them Rupertus here chapter XVIII, St. Thomas, Opuscule On the Government of Princes, book III, chapter VII, Pererius here, Guevara in Habakkuk, chapter II, 7, Alcazar, Apocalypse chapter XVI, 12, and interpreters throughout, relate that Cyrus besieging Babylon dug many ditches around it, and on the day when he knew the Babylonians would be feasting and would become drunk, suddenly by night, while the Chaldeans were drinking and reveling, he diverted the Euphrates, which flows through Babylon, into those ditches, and thus the Persians entered the city through the now dry bed of the Euphrates. The Babylonians did not guard against this, thinking it impossible to do. For, as Xenophon says, "The breadth of the Euphrates is more than two stadia, and the depth is such that not even two men standing one upon the other would rise above the water." On the other side of Babylon there was an innumerable multitude of defenders: but the walls themselves extended fifty cubits in width, two hundred in height. Seeing therefore that Cyrus could not take the city by land, he attacked it by the river on a festive and convivial day. Wherefore Isaiah, chapter XXI, verse 5, foreseeing and mocking the drinking Chaldeans, says: "Set the table, behold in the mirror them eating and drinking, arise, ye princes, take up the shield," the enemy is at hand, Cyrus enters the city. Xenophon adds that there were two Babylonian deserters with Cyrus, Gadatas and Gobryas, under whose guidance Cyrus's soldiers were led into the palace by night, killing all who came in their way, except those who spoke Syriac (the Jews), and having first slain the king's guards, they then killed the king himself. Thus fell that renowned Babylon: We were Trojans, Troy was, and the vast glory of the Teucrians. Babylon was captured in the first year of the monarchy of Cyrus, which was the year of the world 3417. In that year therefore Belshazzar made this feast, saw the hand writing, was slain, etc. Moreover Cyrus, on account of this prophecy of Daniel concerning him made in the present, and another preceding one by Isaiah, chapter XXV, 1, published about 200 years before concerning him, as Josephus says, freed the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, I Esdras 1, 1. Note: In this destruction of the city Daniel was preserved, both by God's providence, and because his virtue and wisdom were already celebrated everywhere, as appears from Ezekiel chapter XXVIII, 3 (thus indeed Marcellus in the storming of Syracuse ordered Archimedes, the most noble mathematician, to be spared); and because his prophecy concerning the death of Belshazzar immediately became widespread, and there is no doubt that Darius and Cyrus understood it at once: they therefore ordered him to be preserved as their prophet, just as Nabuzardan ordered Jeremiah to be preserved, chapter XL, because he had predicted the destruction of the Jews by the Chaldeans.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
5:1
… Tertullian, Apol., 19; St. Jerome, In Dan. 5, 1; Cassiodorus also speak of B.
5:2
That in Dan. 5:2, 11, 13, 22, B. is called son of Nebuchadnezzar can be explained by the fact that in the Semitic languages there is no special term to indicate "descendant," while the word "son" is …
5:25
The Hebrew has: ménē', ménē', tēgēl śphursin (Dan. 5:25). Ménē' is the passive participle of the Aramaic ménēh "to number," "to count," and the indeterminate state of the Aramaic minjāh "mina" (a coin); tēgēl corresponds to the Hebrew leqel …
5:26
Here is the explanation (Dan. 5:26 ff.): ménē' = "numbered"; Daniel completes it: "God has numbered the days of your kingdom," to put an end to it. Tēgēl, taking only the consonants, can be read tēgēl as a past participle, …
5:30
… Nabonides is captured and relegated to Carmania; while B., according to Dan. 5:30, is slain. …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.