The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Silver” it comes from the Aramaic Word “kesaph” which means “silver.”
A mysterious hand writes a cryptic message during Belshazzar’s blasphemous feast. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Daniel 5.
Daniel records how Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand, commanding that the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his princes, his wives and concubines, might drink from them, and they drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, “silver,” “kesaph” in Aramaic, brass, iron, wood, and stone. Daniel describes how in the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote, then the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another, crying aloud to bring in the astrologers, but none could read the writing, until the queen recalls Daniel, who interpreted dreams for Nebuchadnezzar, so Daniel is brought in. Daniel refuses the king’s offered rewards, but reads and interprets the writing, “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN,” meaning God has numbered his kingdom and finished it, he is weighed in the balances and found wanting, and his kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians, rebuking Belshazzar for not humbling his heart, though he knew all this, but has lifted up himself against the Lord of heaven, and has praised gods of silver and gold which do not see, nor hear, nor know, but the God in whose hand his breath is, and whose are all his ways, he has not glorified, closing with Belshazzar being slain that very night, and Darius the Median taking the kingdom.
This dramatic chapter’s mysterious handwriting, appearing suddenly during blasphemous celebration involving sacred temple vessels, offers one of Scripture’s most vivid pictures of divine judgment interrupting careless, arrogant human presumption. Daniel’s refusal to accept rewards before delivering this difficult message models genuine integrity, prioritizing honest truth-telling over personal gain even when facing a powerful, unpredictable ruler.
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