Daniel 5.1-Belshazzar Throws A Great Banquet For A Thousand Of His Nobles And Was Drinking In Front Of Them
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday November 6, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 5:1-Belshazzar Throws A Great Banquet For A Thousand Of His Nobles And Was Drinking In Front Of Them
Lesson # 142
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 5:1.
This evening we will study Daniel 5:1, which records King Belshazzar throwing a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drinking in front of them all.
Daniel 5:1 Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand. (NASB95)
Daniel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is employing the figure of “asyndeton” because He wants the reader to be aware of the fact that there is a topic shift.
It makes the reader aware of the fact that the story of the God of Israel’s dealing with Nebuchadnezzar has ended and now the story of the God of Israel’s dealing with Belshazzar will now begin.
“Belshazzar” is the masculine singular proper name bē∙lešǎ(ʾ)ṣ∙ṣǎr (בֵּלְשַׁאצַּר) (bale-shats-tsar´), which is an Akkadian name which means “Bel protect the king.”
“The king” is the masculine singular form of the noun mě∙lěḵ (מֶלֶךְ) (meh´-lek), which is used with reference to Belshazzar referring to the fact that he was the governmental head of Babylon.
“Held” is the third person masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb ʿǎḇǎḏ (עֲבַד) (ab-ad´), which means “to throw” in the sense of giving by way of entertainment indicating that Belshazzar “threw” a banquet for a thousand of his nobles.
“A great feast” is composed of the masculine singular noun leḥěm (לְחֶם) (lekh-em´), “a feast,” which is modified by the modified by the masculine singular adjective rǎḇ (רַב) (rab), “great.”
The noun leḥěm means “banquet meal” referring to an elaborate, ceremonious meal for numerous people often in honor of a person or a god where both large quantities of food and alcohol are served.
Here it refers to the banquet which Belshazzar threw for a thousand of his nobles to praise the Babylonian gods of gold, silver, bronze, wood and stone.
This noun is modified by the masculine singular adjective rǎḇ, which means “enormous” describing this banquet as marked by extraordinarily great numbers of people suggesting exceeding the usual number of people that attended a banquet.
Not only did a thousand nobles attend this banquet but also the king’s wives and his concubines according to Daniel 5:3.
“For a thousand of his nobles” is composed of the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh), “for” and its object is the masculine plural construct form of the noun rǎḇ∙reḇā∙nîn (רַבְרְבָנִין) (rab-reb-awn´), “nobles” which is modified by the third person masculine singular pronominal suffix hû(ʾ) (הוּא) (who), “his” which is followed by the masculine singular noun ʾǎlǎp̄ (אֲלַף) (al-af´), “a thousand of.”
The noun rǎḇ∙reḇā∙nîn means “nobles” referring to persons in Belshazzar’s kingdom who were associated with the ruling class in his kingdom.
Therefore, satraps, military commanders, governors, advisers, treasurers, lawyers and judges from the city of Babylon attended this great banquet.
The noun rǎḇ∙reḇā∙nîn is the object of the preposition lĕ, which is a marker of purpose indicating that this prepositional phrase is telling the reader that the purpose of Belshazzar throwing a great banquet was for a thousand of his nobles.
This noun is also modified by the noun ʾǎlǎp̄, which means “a thousand” identifying the number of nobles who attended Belshazzar’s great banquet.
“And he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand” is an ascensive clause which expresses the shock that Belshazzar would use alcohol excessively while in the presence of his nobles when the Persians were just outside the walls.
It denotes that from Daniel’s godly perspective, this is out of the ordinary and not what a king should do under such adverse circumstances.
We would expect Belshazzar to have his nobles and people ready to fight the enemy outside its walls if necessary (Proverbs 31:4).
“He was drinking wine” is composed of the masculine singular noun ḥǎmǎr (חֲמַר) (kham-ar´), “wine” and then we have the masculine singular active participle form of the verb šeṯā(h) (שְׁתָה) (sheth-aw´), “he was drinking.”
The verb šeṯā(h) means “to consume” a liquid of some kind and thus refers to Belshazzar drinking wine in the presence of his nobles.
The participle form of the verb is indicating repeated or continuous action indicating that Belshazzar was drinking alcohol excessively in front of his nobles or in other words, he did not have only one drink but many and denotes he was drinking a large amount of wine.
“In the presence of the thousand” is composed of the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh), which is prefixed to the preposition qǒḇēl (קֳבֵל) (kob-ale´), which together are translated “in the presence of,” and then we have the masculine singular noun ʾǎlǎp̄ (אֲלַף) (al-af´), “the thousand.”
The noun ḥǎmǎr means “wine” which is the word for a fermented grape and clearly refers to an intoxicating beverage when used in excess.
The noun ʾǎlǎp̄ again means “a thousand” identifying the number of nobles who attended Belshazzar’s great banquet and is the object of the preposition lĕ is a marker of direction indicating the direction in which Belshazzar sat drinking wine in excessive amounts.
Here it denotes he sat facing “toward” a thousand of his nobles and is joined with the preposition qǒḇēl, which means “in front of” indicating that Belshazzar sat drinking excessive amounts of alcohol “in front of” a thousand of his nobles.
Therefore, these two words literally indicate that Belshazzar sat drinking excessive amounts of wine while facing towards a thousand of his nobles.
Daniel 5:1 King Belshazzar threw an enormous banquet for a thousand of his nobles. He even drank wine excessively directly in front of the thousand. (My translation)
Daniel chapter five presents the account of what happened the night that Babylon fell to the Medes and the Persians in 539 B.C.
Daniel 5:1 says that Belshazzar was throwing a huge banquet for a thousand of his nobles.
According to ancient Near Eastern custom, Belshazzar would have sat on a raised platform at a separate table where he could be seen by his guests.
It was not unusual for kings of the ancient world to hold such enormous banquets and in fact, it was typical of the later Persian kings (see Esther 1:3-8).
Oriental kings were notorious for their extravagant feasts since archaeological discoveries reveal that some Persian monarchs were known to dine daily with 15,000 guests at a meal.
What is unusual is that Belshazzar threw this banquet at a time of great crisis since a huge Medo-Persian invasion force had surrounded the city of Babylon.
He may have held the banquet in order to boost the morale of his people or he might simply have not been very concerned about the invaders outside the walls of the city since it had not fallen to an invading army for 1,000 years because of its extremely strong fortifications.
Furthermore, there were huge stockpiles of food that could sustain the capital for several years, which is something which an invading army would not be able to boast of since they would have to forage for food.
So probably to show contempt for the Medes and Persians and his great confidence in the city’s fortifications and that the city had not fallen to an invader for a thousand years, Belshazzar threw an enormous banquet for a thousand of his nobles.
During this party, the wine flowed freely and the king became intoxicated along with his guests.
History confirms that a drunken party was taking place preceding the destruction of the city of Babylon.
Belshazzar’s pride will lead to his downfall.
Like his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar before him, he was a proud and arrogant individual.
However, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, there is no evidence whatsoever that he became a believer in Yahweh.
Thus, he is presently in Torments (Luke 16).
Eventually, he will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).
He will suffer for all of eternity in the lake of fire because of his decision to not exercise faith in Yahweh but in the gods of the Babylonians.
Ingeniously, Cyrus’ commander Ugbaru who is referred to in the Nabonidus Chronicle as governor of Gutium, diverted the waters of the Euphrates to an old channel dug by a previous ruler which suddenly reduced the water level well below the river-gates.
Not too long after that the Persian invaders came wading in at night and clambered up the riverbank before the guards of the city knew what happened.
Herodotus states that Cyrus took Babylon by temporarily diverting the course of the Euphrates during a nocturnal festival (1.190-191).
Xenophon says that the Persians killed Belshazzar who he describes as a riotous, indulgent, cruel and godless man (Cyrus 4-7 on the fall of Babylon).
Berossus tells us that when Nabonidus knew Cyrus was going to attack him, he engaged the Persian’s forces but he was defeated and with a few of his troops was shut up in the city of Borsippus.
After this Cyrus took Babylon and gave the order to destroy the city’s outer walls since they caused him so much trouble.