Commentary - Daniel 5:5-9

Bird's-eye view

The book of Daniel is about one thing from start to finish: the absolute and universal sovereignty of the God of Israel over every earthly king, potentate, and empire. Whether it is Nebuchadnezzar's dreams, the trial of the fiery furnace, or Daniel in the lion's den, the message is hammered home again and again. The Most High God rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He will. Chapter 5 is perhaps the most dramatic and sudden demonstration of this principle. King Belshazzar, in a fit of drunken, blasphemous arrogance, decides to toast his pagan gods using the holy vessels looted from God's temple in Jerusalem. He is the very picture of a modern secularist, sneering at the things of God, assuming they are inert, harmless relics of a bygone era. And in the middle of his debauched feast, God crashes the party. The scene that unfolds is a raw display of divine judgment breaking into history, showing that while men may forget God, God has not forgotten them. The passage is a stark reminder that God's patience has a limit, and that judgment, when it comes, can be terrifyingly swift and final.

This section, from the disembodied hand to the baffled wise men, serves as the setup for the great punchline. The world's wisdom, its magic, its political savvy, is struck dumb before the plain declaration of God. Belshazzar's drunken confidence evaporates in an instant, replaced by mortal terror. His physical reaction is a picture of complete disintegration. This is what happens when a man whose entire reality is built on his own power and importance comes face to face with a power that is truly ultimate. The king who thought he was the center of the universe is reduced to a quivering wreck, and all his counselors are shown to be fools. The stage is thus set for the entrance of God's prophet, Daniel, who will not only read the message but will deliver the verdict of God upon this godless kingdom.

Outline

Context In Daniel

Daniel 5 occurs toward the end of the Babylonian empire, on the very night it fell to the Medes and Persians in 539 B.C. The king, Belshazzar, is the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, and he has clearly learned nothing from his grandfather's humbling experience in chapter 4. Nebuchadnezzar was driven to madness until he learned that the Most High rules the kingdom of men. Belshazzar, by contrast, has not only forgotten this lesson, he actively defies the God who taught it. The first part of the chapter (vv. 1-4) details his great feast and the central act of blasphemy: using the temple vessels for a pagan party. This act is a direct challenge to Yahweh. It is a statement that the gods of Babylon have triumphed over the God of Jerusalem. The passage we are examining (vv. 5-9) is God's immediate, terrifying response to that challenge. It is the beginning of the end for Babylon. This event directly leads to Daniel, now an old man, being called out of retirement to do what he has always done: speak the truth of God to power.

Key Issues

The Handwriting on the Wall

There comes a point when God stops sending prophets and starts writing on the wall Himself. Belshazzar's feast is a picture of our modern secular age in microcosm. It is a celebration of autonomy, a drunken revelry in defiance of the Creator. The participants are convinced that they are the masters of their own story, that the artifacts of an older faith are just props for their current amusement. They are using the cups of God's house to toast their idols of materialism, technology, and political power. They believe God is either dead or safely locked away in the history books.

But God is not mocked. The appearance of the hand is a moment of sheer, unadulterated supernaturalism. It is a direct intervention from another world, a tear in the fabric of their self-contained reality. And notice, it is just fingers, a man's hand. God often uses the mundane to deliver the miraculous. He doesn't need thunder and lightning; a simple hand, writing a few words, is enough to bring an empire to its knees. This is because the terror is not in the spectacle, but in the implication. The message is clear even before it is read: you are not alone, and you are not in charge. The party is over. The owner of the house has come home, and He is not pleased with what He finds.

Verse by Verse Commentary

5 Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand came out and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing.

The word suddenly tells us everything. Judgment does not, as a rule, send an RSVP. It arrives unannounced. The feast is in full swing, the wine is flowing, the blasphemous toasts are being made, and then this. God's timing is perfect. He allows the sin to reach its absolute zenith before He intervenes. A hand appears out of nowhere. It is not a ghostly, ethereal thing; it is described as the fingers of a man's hand. It is tangible, real. It writes on the plaster of the wall, a mundane detail that grounds the miracle in reality. It writes opposite the lampstand, where the light is brightest, ensuring everyone can see. There is no hiding this. The king sees the back of the hand, a detail that emphasizes the otherness of the writer. He is not seeing a person; he is seeing an agent of an unseen person. This is God's signature, delivered by an unseen messenger, right in the middle of the king's own palace.

6 Then the splendor of the king’s face changed, and his thoughts alarmed him, and his hip joints went slack, and his knees were knocking against each other.

This verse is a clinical description of abject terror. The king's confident, drunken demeanor vanishes instantly. The Hebrew word for splendor changing indicates his face went pale, the blood draining from it. His very thoughts turned against him, becoming a source of alarm. His conscience, seared and ignored, was suddenly wide awake and screaming. The fear was not just mental; it was profoundly physical. His hip joints went slack, meaning he lost all strength in his core; he could barely stand. His knees knocked together. This is not a man posturing for his nobles. This is a man utterly undone. The proud king, the master of the known world, has been reduced to a quivering mass of fear by a few fingers writing on a wall. This is what the raw, unmediated presence of God's judgment does to the proud.

7 The king called out loudly to bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans, and the diviners. The king answered and said to the wise men of Babylon, “Any man who can read this writing and declare its interpretation to me shall be clothed with purple and have a necklace of gold around his neck and rule with power as third ruler in the kingdom.”

In his panic, the king turns to the only source of wisdom he knows: his stable of pagan occultists. The conjurers, Chaldeans, and diviners were the Ivy League professors of their day, the experts in understanding the "deep things." This is the reflexive action of a godless world. When faced with a crisis that transcends the material, it turns to its own counterfeit priests. And what does the king offer? The only things he values: wealth, status, and power. Purple robes, a gold necklace, and the position of third ruler. He thinks he can buy a solution to his spiritual crisis. He is trying to solve a God-problem with man-made trinkets. He is offering earthly rewards for a heavenly revelation, demonstrating that he still does not understand the nature of the situation he is in.

8 Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known its interpretation to the king.

And here we have the inevitable result. The collected wisdom of Babylon, the pinnacle of human achievement and pagan insight, is completely and utterly useless. They could not read the writing. The script itself may have been an ancient form of Hebrew or Aramaic they did not recognize, or God may have simply blinded their understanding. Either way, the point is the same. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. All their incantations, their astrological charts, their accumulated lore, amounted to nothing. They stand there, mute and incompetent. God has written a message that only His own chosen servant can decipher. He is demonstrating, before the entire Babylonian court, the bankruptcy of their entire religious and intellectual system.

9 Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and the splendor of his face changed further, and his nobles were perplexed.

The king's initial terror now deepens into a state of profound agitation. The word greatly is added. His hope that his experts could contain the problem has been dashed, and now he is left alone with the terrifying script on the wall. His face changes further, indicating a new level of panic. And the fear is contagious. His nobles, who were just moments before enjoying the party, are now perplexed. The word means confused, bewildered. The foundations of their world have been shaken. The king is terrified, and the wise men are fools. The entire leadership of the empire is in a state of confusion and fear. The party has turned into a wake, and the corpse is Babylon itself.

Application

We live in Belshazzar's palace. Our culture is drunk on its own achievements and regularly uses the things of God as a punchline. We are told that faith is a private matter, that the supernatural is a relic of a superstitious past, and that human wisdom, whether in science, politics, or psychology, has all the answers we need. We toast our idols of progress and autonomy and assume the party will go on forever.

This passage is a bucket of ice water in the face of that assumption. It tells us that God is not a silent spectator in His own world. He sees the blasphemy, He weighs the kingdoms of men, and He holds the pen of judgment. The handwriting is on the wall for any society that defies its Creator. The message for us is twofold. First, for the unbeliever, it is a stark warning. Your revelry is temporary. There will come a moment, perhaps when you least expect it, when the reality of God will intrude upon your self-made world, and all your earthly wisdom and resources will be useless. Your knees will knock, and your thoughts will accuse you. The time to seek the one true Interpreter, Jesus Christ, is now.

Second, for the believer, this is a profound encouragement. We can often feel like Daniel, living in a hostile and arrogant Babylon. It can seem as though the enemies of God are winning, that their parties will never end. This story reminds us that the most powerful empire on earth can be dismantled in a single evening. Our God is sovereign. He is not intimidated by the boasts of proud kings or the consensus of court magicians. He holds the fate of nations in His hand. Therefore, we are to live faithfully, like Daniel, ready to speak God's truth when called upon, confident that no matter how dark the feast may seem, the King of Heaven has already written the final word.