King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Daniel 5
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the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank before the thousand. , whiles he tasted the , commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his had taken out of which was in ; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his , might drink therein. 3Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of of the house of which was at ; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his , drank in them. They drank , and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the , and the soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to men of , Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in . Then came in all the king’s men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the thereof. Then was king greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonied. Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banquet house: and the queen spake and said, O king, live for ever: let not thy trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed: There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is of the gods; and in the days of thy and understanding and , like the of the gods, was found in him; whom the king thy , the king, I say, thy , made master of the magicians, astrologers, , and soothsayers; Forasmuch as an excellent , and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of , and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same , whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let be called, and he will shew the . Then was brought in before the king. And the king spake and said unto , Art thou that , which art of the children of of Judah, whom the king brought out of ? I have even heard of thee, that of the gods is in thee, and that and understanding and excellent is found in thee. And now men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the thereof: but they could not shew the of the thing: And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in . Then answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the . O thou king, gave thy a kingdom, and majesty, and , and : And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and , trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down. But when was lifted up, and his hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly , and they took his from him: And he was driven from the sons of men; and was made like the , and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the of ; till he knew that ruled in of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will. And thou his son, O , hast not humbled thine , though thou knewest all this; But hast lifted up thyself against of ; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy , have drunk in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written. 25And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the of the thing: MENE; hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the and . Then commanded , and they clothed with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in . In that night was the king of the slain. And the Median took , being about threescore and two years old.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Babylon and the exile, 612 BC to 539 BC ›
Babylon replaces Assyria, Jerusalem and its temple are destroyed in 586 BC, and the leadership of Judah lives in Mesopotamia without a king, a temple, or a country.
- Babylon
- Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilds the city on a scale meant to be seen from a distance: the Ishtar Gate in glazed blue brick, the processional way, the ziggurat, and gardens later counted among the wonders of the world. Babylonian tablets record rations issued to the captive king Jehoiachin of Judah by name, which is one of the tidier points of contact between the Bible and the archives.
- Egypt
- Briefly resurgent. Pharaoh Neco marches north, kills King Josiah at Megiddo, and installs and deposes kings in Jerusalem, until Babylon beats him decisively at Carchemish in 605 BC. Jeremiah spends his career saying that betting on Egypt is suicide, and is proved right.
- Judah
- Deported in stages, then destroyed. The temple is burned, the walls broken, and the leadership marched to Mesopotamia. What happens next is one of the strangest survivals in history: a people keeps its identity without land, king, or sanctuary, and comes out of it with its scriptures more central than before.
- Further afield
- An extraordinary century for ideas everywhere at once. Thales and the first Greek philosophers, Solon's reforms at Athens, the Buddha in India, Confucius and Lao Tzu in China, and Zoroaster in Persia all fall within a few generations of the exile.