Then Belshazzar commanded, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and [put] a chain of gold about his neck, and made proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
Daniel had just read the writing on the wall and told the king that his kingdom was finished. Belshazzar answered with a reward — robe, gold chain, and third place in a realm that had hours left to run.
The promise of reward had been public, and the king kept it. One writer sees a strange integrity in that:
One thing more is added: Belshazzar's last act as king. Whatever Daniel's attitude, he could not let his public promise of a reward to the interpreter come to nothing. Men who are false to God are often true to one another in their very selfishness.
Why third place, and not second? History gives the reason, and one writer treats it as quiet proof that the account is genuine:
The king offered the third place in the kingdom as a reward. That is the sort of circumstantial evidence lawyers love, and that convinces a court. Belshazzar reigned together with his father, Nabonidus. This joint monarch is not named in Daniel 5. It is believed he was away on military business at the time. Two places already belonged to these two kings, so the reward promised was a third place in the kingdom.
The colour of the robe is worth noticing. Some older translations print "scarlet" here and put "purple" in the margin. One writer says the margin has it right:
Purple is found in Scripture mainly with Gentiles, and only once or twice with Israel. In Daniel 5:7, 16 and 29 the margin is correct: purple, not scarlet. Scarlet is never found with a Gentile.
Dressing a man for high office in a doomed kingdom is not generosity. It is a reply. Belshazzar answered the message with a ceremony:
He has been telling me my kingdom is coming to an end, says the king, but I do not believe it. I do not believe my kingdom is over. Blow the trumpet. Put a gold chain round Daniel's neck. Proclaim that I have decided he shall be the next man to me in the kingdom — my kingdom is still going on. So he thought, and so he acted… The proof of his unbelief was this. He proclaimed that Daniel was to be the third ruler in the kingdom. Yet he had just heard that his kingdom was finished. He did not believe it. But it came true.
One writer puts the tragedy of the verse in a single line:
The king makes much of the messenger, but seems to pay little attention to the message. Even so, that night the judgment fell.
Before speaking, Daniel had told the king to keep his gifts. One writer points to what had changed:
Daniel's answer in verse 17 is very striking. Earlier, at the end of Daniel 2, Daniel had accepted the honours placed on him. Now he treated them with disdain. It was clear that the meaning of the four fateful words had already reached his heart. He knew that God had rejected Belshazzar, and that his kingdom was about to crash into ruin. So the honours offered were worthless.
He had come into the banquet as a man with nothing at stake in it:
He had no connection with the feast — none at all. In the day of it he was, as we have seen, a separated man. But he was called to it, and he entered the banqueting hall as a conqueror. The king there promised to make him the third ruler in the kingdom. "Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another," said the servant of Christ. He was just as much a conqueror on the day of the feast as he was on the day of the lions' den.
The reward was real, and it was brief:
The warning produced no change in Belshazzar. He gave Daniel honours as though his kingdom would continue — even though Daniel had refused them. Daniel wore those honours for just a few hours, because that night the judgment fell as predicted.
Daniel's rank is worth setting beside two others:
Daniel had the third place and Joseph had the second place, but Christ has the preeminence.
- Warned. The king heard a clear message of judgment and answered it with a ceremony instead of repentance.
- Rewarded. He kept his public promise in full — proof that a man can be honest with people while remaining false toward God.
- Refused. Daniel had already turned the gifts down. God had rejected the kingdom, so its honours were worth nothing to him.
- Revealed. He named a third ruler over a kingdom that God had just declared finished. No words could show unbelief more clearly.
- Removed. The robe and chain lasted only hours. Daniel took third place, Joseph took second, and the preeminence belongs to Christ alone.
In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
That very night the feast ended, the writing on the wall came true, and the empire of Babylon changed hands. Commentators read the verse on three levels: the end of one proud man, prophecy fulfilled to the letter, and a sample of how God deals with world powers.
Daniel had told Belshazzar, hours earlier, what the writing meant. What makes his death so severe is that he was not ignorant. He knew how God had dealt with his father, and he insulted God anyway.
But was this ignorant desecration? No — it was boasting against the God of Israel. They praised the gods of gold, of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In their eyes even a piece of wood or a stone counted for more than God. Did that godless Belshazzar know no better? Had he never heard of God's ways with his father? No — "And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this." That same night he was slain. Judgment did not delay its avenging blow on one who so boldly insulted God.
Verse 29 and verse 30 sit side by side. The king rewards Daniel and makes him third ruler. That only makes sense if he expects the kingdom to go on.
He has been saying that my kingdom is coming to an end, says the king, but I do not believe it. Blow the trumpet, put a gold chain round Daniel's neck, and proclaim that I have decided he shall be the next man to me in the kingdom — my kingdom is still to go on. So he thought, and so he acted. But we read, "That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed." The man was plainly an unbeliever, despite the clear warning he had and the testimony of God in the writing on the wall.
Prophecy had already named the man who would take Babylon, and the open gates he would find.
Scripture prophesied the fall of Babylon. It says that Cyrus was God's shepherd, and that He had taken hold of him to subdue nations. God would loosen the belts of kings, to open the double doors before him. The gates would not be shut. The bronze gates would be broken and the iron bars cut through (Isaiah 45:1-2). The suddenness of the attack is mentioned too: "ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing" (Isaiah 47:11). We also find that it was on the night of Belshazzar's revelry that the king was slain.
The city thought itself safe behind its walls. But the attackers went under them, not through them.
The river Euphrates ran right through the centre of the city, guarded by great bronze gates, so that no one could enter by water. Cyrus, the Persian leader, used a very simple trick. The Euphrates bends near Babylon, so he cut a new bed for the water a few miles upstream. When darkness came, he opened the sluices and turned the river into this new channel. The riverbed was then practically dry where it passed Babylon. The Persian troops marched quietly along it, under the bronze gates, and took the city.
For a long time critics treated this verse as proof that Daniel was unreliable. No record of Belshazzar existed outside the Bible.
Years ago, learned critics claimed that the book of Daniel was largely legendary and written several centuries after the events it described. They regarded Belshazzar as an imaginary figure, since they found no reference to him in surviving records. Later, however, archaeologists dug in these ancient ruins and found his name on a clay tablet. That shattered this claim, like many other unbelieving claims. It appears that, following an ancient custom, he shared the kingship with his father. His father was away at the time, so in practice he was king in Babylon just as it fell to the rising power of Medo-Persia.
The verse also settles a question of prophecy. Daniel had told the king his kingdom would go to the Medes and Persians. Verses 30 and 31 record the handover.
Daniel gave Belshazzar the meaning of the final word: "PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians." So the Medo-Persian kingdom was to follow that of the Chaldeans. And that is how it turned out, for we read in verses 30 and 31: "That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom." This is perfectly plain and conclusive. We are not left to guesswork — not even to the testimony of secular history. The second great Gentile empire was that of the Medes and Persians.
The fall is not only history. It carries weight for prophecy too.
God thus judged the first of the kingdoms of the Gentiles, and this was the monarchy of Babylon. The event was of the highest importance for history, and of no less weight for prophecy. The moral features that marked Belshazzar's rule will reappear in the future Babylon spoken of in Revelation.
Wolston presses it on anyone who assumes there is always time later:
But, you say, some men turn to the Lord on their deathbed. I do not deny it. But who gives you the assurance? You may spend your life in the service of sin, living only for this world and neglecting eternity. Who tells you that you will still be able to turn to the Lord at the last hour and have everything settled? Take warning: Belshazzar died that night, and you may die this night.
- Knowledge: God did not judge Belshazzar for ignorance. He knew how God had dealt with his father, and he defied Him anyway.
- Refusal: His last royal act was to promote Daniel to third ruler. He never believed the kingdom was finished.
- That night: God did not postpone the sentence. The warning and its fulfilment fell inside the same evening's feast.
- Precision: Scripture named the conqueror, the dry river channel and the open gates in advance. A clay tablet later confirmed even the king's name.
- Pattern: The first Gentile empire ended here. Commentators see its pride as a preview of the Babylon of Revelation.