Daniel 5–6

Belshazzar’s Banquet

5One night King Belshazzar invited a thousand noblemen to a great banquet, and they drank wine together. ²While they were drinking, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups and bowls which his fatherⁱ Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from the Temple in Jerusalem. The king sent for them so that he, his noblemen, his wives, and his concubines could drink out of them. ³At once the gold cups and bowls were brought in, and they all drank wine out of them ⁴and praised gods made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. ⁵Suddenly a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster wall of the palace, where the light from the lamps was shining most brightly. And the king saw the hand as it was writing. ⁶He turned pale and was so frightened that his knees began to shake. ⁷He shouted for someone to bring in the magicians, wizards, and astrologers. When they came in, the king said to them, “Anyone who can read this writing and tell me what it means will be dressed in robes of royal purple, wear a gold chain of honour round his neck, and be the third in power in the kingdom.” ⁸The royal advisers came forward, but none of them could read the writing or tell the king what it meant. ⁹In his distress King Belshazzar grew even paler, and his noblemen had no idea what to do.

¹⁰The queen mother heard the noise made by the king and his noblemen and entered the banqueting hall. She said, “May Your Majesty live for ever! Please do not be so disturbed and look so pale. ¹¹There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods^j in him. When your father was king, this man showed good sense, knowledge, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father,^k made him chief of the fortune tellers, magicians, wizards, and astrologers. ¹²He has unusual ability and is wise and skilful in interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining mysteries; so send for this man Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, and he will tell you what all this means.”

Daniel Explains the Writing

¹³Daniel was brought at once into the king’s presence, and the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, that Jewish exile whom my father the king brought here from Judah? ¹⁴I have heard that the spirit of the holy gods^l is in you and that you are skilful and have knowledge and wisdom. ¹⁵The advisers and magicians were brought in to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not discover the meaning. ¹⁶Now I have heard that you can find hidden meanings and explain mysteries. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be dressed in robes of royal purple, wear a gold chain of honour round your neck, and be the third in power in the kingdom.”

¹⁷Daniel replied, “Keep your gifts for yourself or give them to someone else. I will read for Your Majesty what has been written and tell you what it means.

¹⁸“The Supreme God made your father Nebuchadnezzar a great king and gave him dignity and majesty. ¹⁹He was so great that people of all nations, races, and languages were afraid of him and trembled. If he wanted to kill someone, he did; if he wanted to keep someone alive, he did. He honoured or disgraced anyone he wanted to. ²⁰But because he became proud, stubborn, and cruel, he was removed from his royal throne and lost his place of honour. ²¹He was driven away from human society, and his mind became like that of an animal. He lived with wild donkeys, ate grass like an ox, and slept in the open air with nothing to protect him from the dew. Finally he admitted that the Supreme God controls all human kingdoms and can give them to anyone he chooses.

²²“But you, his son, have not humbled yourself, even though you knew all this. ²³You acted against the Lord of heaven and brought in the cups and bowls taken from his Temple. You, your noblemen, your wives, and your concubines drank wine out of them and praised gods made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that cannot see or hear and that do not know anything. But you did not honour the God who determines whether you live or die and who controls everything you do. ²⁴That is why God has sent the hand to write these words.

²⁵“This is what was written: ‘Number, number, weight, divisions.’ ²⁶And this is what it means: number, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; ²⁷weight, you have been weighed on the scales and found to be too light; ²⁸divisions, your kingdom is divided up and given to the Medes and Persians.”^m

²⁹Immediately Belshazzar ordered his servants to dress Daniel in a robe of royal purple and to hang a gold chain of honour round his neck. And he made him the third in power in the kingdom. ³⁰That same night Belshazzar, the king of Babylonia, was killed; ³¹and Darius the Mede, who was then 62 years old, seized the royal power.

Daniel in the Pit of Lions

6Darius decided to appoint 120 governors to hold office throughout his empire. ²In addition, he chose Daniel and two others to supervise the governors and to look after the king’s interests. ³Daniel soon showed that he could do better work than the other supervisors or the governors. Because he was so outstanding, the king considered putting him in charge of the whole empire. ⁴Then the other supervisors and the governors tried to find something wrong with the way Daniel administered the empire, but they couldn’t, because Daniel was reliable and did not do anything wrong or dishonest. ⁵They said to one another, “We are not going to find anything of which to accuse Daniel unless it is something in connection with his religion.”

⁶So they went to see the king and said, “King Darius, may Your Majesty live for ever! ⁷All of us who administer your empire—the supervisors, the governors, the lieutenant-governors, and the other officials—have agreed that Your Majesty should issue an order and enforce it strictly. Give orders that for thirty days no one be permitted to request anything from any god or from any human being except from Your Majesty. Anyone who violates this order is to be thrown into a pit filled with lions. ⁸So let Your Majesty issue this order and sign it, and it will be in force, a law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed.” ⁹And so King Darius signed the order. ¹⁰When Daniel learnt that the order had been signed, he went home. In an upstairs room of his house there were windows that faced towards Jerusalem. There, just as he had always done, he knelt down at the open windows and prayed to God three times a day.

¹¹When Daniel’s enemies observed him praying to God, ¹²all of them went together to the king to accuse Daniel. They said, “Your Majesty, you signed an order that for the next thirty days anyone who requested anything from any god or from any human being except you, would be thrown into a pit filled with lions.”

The king replied, “Yes, a strict order, a law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed.”

¹³Then they said to the king, “Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, does not respect Your Majesty or obey the order you issued. He prays regularly three times a day.”

¹⁴When the king heard this, he was upset and did his best to find some way to rescue Daniel. He kept trying until sunset. ¹⁵Then Daniel’s enemies came back to the king and said to him, “Your Majesty knows that according to the laws of the Medes and Persians no order which the king issues can be changed.”

¹⁶So the king gave orders for Daniel to be arrested and he was thrown into the pit filled with lions. He said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve so loyally, rescue you.” ¹⁷A stone was put over the mouth of the pit, and the king placed his own royal seal and the seal of his noblemen on the stone, so that no one could rescue Daniel. ¹⁸Then the king returned to the palace and spent a sleepless night, without food or any form of entertainment.

¹⁹At dawn the king got up and hurried to the pit. ²⁰When he got there, he called out anxiously, “Daniel, servant of the living God! Was the God you serve so loyally able to save you from the lions?”

²¹Daniel answered, “May Your Majesty live for ever! ²²God sent his angel to shut the mouths of the lions so that they would not hurt me. He did this because he knew that I was innocent and because I have not wronged you, Your Majesty.”

²³The king was overjoyed and gave orders for Daniel to be pulled up out of the pit. So they pulled him up and saw that he had not been hurt at all, for he trusted God. ²⁴Then the king gave orders to arrest all the men who had accused Daniel, and they were thrown, together with their wives and their children, into the pit filled with lions. Before they even reached the bottom of the pit, the lions pounced on them and broke all their bones.

²⁵Then King Darius wrote to the people of all nations, races, and languages on earth:

“Greetings! ²⁶I command that throughout my empire everyone should fear and respect Daniel’s God.

“He is a living God,

and he will rule for ever.

His kingdom will never be destroyed,

and his power will never come to an end.

²⁷He saves and rescues;

he performs wonders and miracles

in heaven and on earth.

He saved Daniel from being killed by the lions.”

²⁸Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.