Daniel 5.10-Due To The Noise Caused By The King And His Nobles, The Queen Enters Banquet Hall And Comforts The King
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday December 5, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 5:10-Due To The Noise Caused By The King And His Nobles, The Queen Enters Banquet Hall And Comforts The King
Lesson # 151
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 5:1.
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. 2 Belshazzar issued an order while under the influence of the wine causing the gold and silver articles to be brought in which Nebuchadnezzar, his great-grandfather caused to be confiscated from the temple, which was in Jerusalem, in order that the king, his nobles as well as his wives and in addition his concubines could drink with them. 3 Therefore, the gold and silver articles were brought in, which were confiscated from the temple, which was God’s house, which was in Jerusalem so that the king, his nobles as well as his wives and in addition his concubines could drink with them. 4 They drank wine while they praised gods composed of gold as well as silver, bronze, iron, wood and in addition stone. 5 During this time, the fingers of a human hand appeared while writing on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, directly in front of the lampstand so that the king observed the palm of the hand which was writing. 6 Then the king, his countenance was changed for him. Also, his thoughts caused him to be terrified so that his hip joints gave way resulting in his knees knocking together, one against the other. 7 The king authoritatively shouted out an order for the purpose of causing the necromancers, astrologers as well as diviners to be brought in. He declared to the city of Babylon’s wise men, “Any person who can read aloud as well as can make known its interpretation to me will be clothed with a purple robe as well as a golden chain around his neck. Indeed, they will rule as third in the kingdom.” 8 Therefore, each and every one of the king’s wise men came in but they were totally unable to read or cause the interpretation to be made known to the king. 9 Thus causing the king to be extremely terrified so that his countenance was changed on him as well as causing his nobles to be perplexed. (My translation)
Daniel 5:10 The queen entered the banquet hall because of the words of the king and his nobles; the queen spoke and said, “O king, live forever! Do not let your thoughts alarm you or your face be pale.” (NASB95)
Daniel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is employing the figure of “asyndeton” in order to emphasize the introduction of a new character in the narrative, namely the queen.
The Holy Spirit through Daniel uses this figure because He wants the reader to dwell upon the entrance of the queen who advises Belshazzar to bring in Daniel to solve the problem of the mysterious inscription.
“O king, live forever!” is hyperbole since the queen doesn’t expect Belshazzar to live forever.
It simply denotes that she wishes that Belshazzar would live a long life.
Of course, he was to die that very evening.
“Do not let your thoughts alarm you” is composed of the marker of negation ʾǎl (אַל) (al), “not” which is negating the meaning of the third person masculine plural paʿʿel (Hebrew: piel) active imperfect form of the verb behǎl (בְּהַל) (bĕ-hal´), “do let alarm” which is followed by the second person masculine singular pronominal suffix -ḵ (־ךְ), “you” and then we have the masculine plural construct form of the noun rǎʿ∙yôn (רַעְיֹון) (rah-yone´), “thoughts,” which is modified by the second person masculine singular pronominal suffix -ḵ (־ךְ), “your.”
The verb behǎl means “to cause one to be terrified” and denotes that Belshazzar’s thoughts “caused him to be terrified” as a result of the inability of the wise men to read or interpret the inscription on the wall.
The word is emphatically negated by the marker of emphatic negation or prohibition ʾǎl, which means that the word is marking a prohibition, which is emphatic.
The queen is emphatically prohibiting Belshazzar from being terrified by the mysterious handwriting on the wall.
The jussive conjugation expresses the queen’s strong desire that her son would not be terrified by the mysterious handwriting on the wall.
The paʿʿel (Hebrew: piel) stem of the verb denotes that the queen is expressing her strong desire that the wise men’s inability to read or interpret the inscription would by no means cause Belshazzar to enter into the state of being greatly terrified.
“Or your face be pale” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “or” which is followed by the masculine singular construct form of the noun zîw (זִיו) (zeev), “face” which is modified by the second person masculine singular pronominal suffix -ḵ (־ךְ), “your” and then once again we have the marker of negation ʾǎl (אַל) (al), “not” which this time is negating the meaning of the third person masculine plural hitpaʿʿal (Hebrew: piel) middle imperfect form of the verb šenā(h) (שְׁנָה) (shen-aw´), “be pale.”
The conjunction wa is a marker of result meaning that it is introducing a statement which presents the result of the previous statement that the wise men’s inability to read or interpret the inscription caused Belshazzar to be extremely terrified.
The word is introducing a statement which says that the king’s face or countenance was changed on him.
Thus this conjunction denotes that “as a result of” being extremely terrified, Belshazzar’s countenance changed on him.
The noun zîw means “countenance” since it refers to the appearance of one’s face and here it is used of Belshazzar’s countenance.
The verb šenā(h) means “to change” and its subject is Belshazzar’s countenance or facial appearance.
Thus, it refers to his facial appearance or countenance “changing” as a result of being extremely terrified because his wise men were totally unable to read or interpret the inscription on the wall.
The word is emphatically negated by the marker of emphatic negation or prohibition ʾǎl, which means that the word is marking a prohibition, which is emphatic.
The third person masculine plural form of the verb refers to Belshazzar’s thoughts.
The jussive conjugation expresses the queen’s strong desire that her son’s thoughts which terrified him would by no means cause his countenance to be changed.
The hitpaʿʿal (Hebrew: piel) stem of the verb denotes that the queen strongly desires that the wise men’s inability to read or interpret the inscription would by no means cause him to be terrified so that his thoughts would cause his countenance to enter the state of being changed.
Daniel 5:10 The queen entered the banquet hall because of the king’s words as well as his nobles. The queen responded and said, “O king, live forever! Please, by no means let your thoughts cause you to be terrified so that they by no means cause your countenance to be changed!” (My translation)
The queen here in Daniel 5:10 was not one of Belshazzar’s wives since Daniel 5:2-3 tells us that the king’s wives were already at the banquet held in honor of the king’s nobles, thus the queen is either Belshazzar’s mother or grandmother.
The fact, that the queen was old enough to be very familiar with Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar’s relationship, would suggest that she was Belshazzar’s grandmother, whose name was Adad-Guppi.
History tells us that she was a very influential person and the quintessential queen mother.
Her description of Daniel indicates that she had contact with him in the past and was familiar with his relationship with Nebuchadnezzar.
The manner in which she speaks to Belshazzar indicates she was either his mother or grandmother.
She was old enough to have knowledge of the prophet Daniel but also wise enough to not be in attendance of the king’s drunken banquet for his nobles.
However, the Nabonidus Chronicle seems to rule out the queen here in Daniel 5:10 as being Nabonidus’ mother and Belshazzar’s grandmother since it records that she died in the ninth year of Nabonidus’ reign (Baldwin, 122).
Thus, more than likely the queen is Nabonidus’ wife and thus Belshazzar’s mother.
In the ancient courts, the queen mother often wielded considerable influence (cf. 1 Kings 15:13; 2 Kings 11:1-3; 24:12; Jeremiah 13:18).
Daniel 5:10 informs the reader that the reason why Belshazzar’s mother entered the banquet hall was because of the words of her son, the king and his nobles.
She heard the commotion as a result of the unattached hand writing on one of the walls of the banquet and undoubtedly, the servants would have informed her of the situation as well.
She responds to the situation by making several statements to the king with the first two appearing in Daniel 4:10 and the remaining appear in Daniel 4:11-12.
Here in verse 10, she greets the king with the phrase “O king, live forever!” which is a greeting and hyperbole.
Her second statement in verse 10 expresses in emphatic terms her strong desire that the king’s thoughts would by no means cause him to be terrified so that these thoughts would by no means cause his countenance to be changed.
Thus, we see her comforting Belshazzar.
In other words, in a polite manner, before all his guests, the queen is telling her son the king to pull himself together.
Then, in verses 11-12, she tells him she has a solution and thus why he should be comforted, namely, because he has a man in his kingdom who can read and interpret the inscription.
His name is Daniel and she was quite familiar with him and his relationship with Nebuchadnezzar her father as indicated by her statements to the king in verses 11-12.