Rembrandt's depiction of the biblical account of Belshazzar seeing "the writing on the wall"

For Handel's oratorio of this name, see Belshazzar (Handel)

Belshazzar (or Baltasar; Akkadian Bel-sarra-usur) was a prince of Babylon, the son of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon. In the Book of Daniel (chapters 5 and 8) of the Jewish Tanakh or Christian Old Testament, Belshazzar is the King of Babylon before the advent of the Medes and Persians. Image File history File links Rembrandt-Belsazar. ... Image File history File links Rembrandt-Belsazar. ... Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. ... The writing on the wall (or sometimes handwriting on the wall) is an expression that suggests a portent of doom or misfortune. ... Belshazzar is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. ... Akkadian (lišānum akkadītum) was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. ... Babylon (in Arabic: بابل; in Syriac: ܒܒܙܠ in Hebrew:בבל) was an ancient city in Mesopotamia (modern Al Hillah, Iraq), the ruins of which can be found in present-day Babil Province, about 80km south of Baghdad. ... Nabonidus (Akkadian Nabû-nāʾid) was the last King of Babylon, who ruled the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 556 BC to 539 BC. His reign was characterized by his lack of interest in the politics and religion of his kingdom, preferring instead to study the older temples and antiquities in... For other uses, see Book of Daniel (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Tanakh (‎) (also Tanach, IPA: or , or Tenak) is an acronym that identifies the Hebrew Bible. ... Christianity percentage by country, purple is highest, orange is lowest Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh to refer to its canon, which corresponds to the Protestant Old Testament. ... Babylon (in Arabic: بابل; in Syriac: ܒܒܙܠ in Hebrew:בבל) was an ancient city in Mesopotamia (modern Al Hillah, Iraq), the ruins of which can be found in present-day Babil Province, about 80km south of Baghdad. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Persians of Iran (officially named Persia by West until 1935 while still referred to as Persia by some) are an Iranian people who speak Persian (locally named Fârsi by native speakers) and often refer to themselves as ethnic Iranians as well. ...

Contemporary Babylonian sources

Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus, who after ruling only three years, went to the oasis of Tayma and devoted himself to the worship of the moon god, Sin. He made Belshazzar co-regent in 553 B.C, leaving him in charge of Babylon's defense. Nabonidus (Akkadian Nabû-nāʾid) was the last King of Babylon, who ruled the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 556 BC to 539 BC. His reign was characterized by his lack of interest in the politics and religion of his kingdom, preferring instead to study the older temples and antiquities in... Tayma or (Tema) is a large oasis with a long tradition of occupation, located in Saudi Arabia northeast of the Hijaz at the point where the trade route between Yathrib (Medina) and Dumah begins to cross the Nefud desert. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... A Co-regency is the situation where a monarchical position (such as King, Queen, Emperor or Empress), normally held by only a single person, is held by two. ...

In the year 540 B.C. Nabonidus returned from Tayma, hoping to defend his kingdom from the Persians who were planning to advance on Babylon. In 539 B.C. Belshazzar was positioned in the city of Babylon to hold the capital, while Nabonidus, marched his troops north to meet Cyrus. On October 10, 539 B.C. Nabonidus surrendered and fled from Cyrus. Two days later, October 12, 539 B.C., the Persian armies overthrew the city of Babylon.

Classical sources

Herodotus refers to the last king of Babylon as Labynetos and claims that this was also the name of his father. Herodotus says that the mother of the younger Labynetos was the queen Nitocris whom he portrays as the dominant ruler. She is commonly thought to have been the daughter of Nebuchadnezzer. Labynetos is generally understood to be a garbled form of the name Nabonidus and the younger Labynetos is often identified with Belshazzar. Opinions differ however on how best to reconcile Herodotus with the Babylonian sources and an alternative view is that the younger Labynetos is Nabonidus. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Josephus gives an account of Belshazzar largely paralleling the Book of Daniel but remarks that he was known to the Babylonians by the name Naboandelus. Bible scholars have viewed this as a corruption of "Nabonidus" which if correct may be taken either as confusion on the part of Josephus or a corroboration of the interpretation of the younger "Labynetos" of Herodotus as Belshazzar. Josephus, however, knew of Nabonidus and calls him "Nabonnedus" relating an account of his capture by Cyrus taken from Berossus. Josephus refers to the queen at the time (corresponding to the Nitocris of Herodotus) as the grandmother of Belshazzar which corroborates the alternative view that the younger "Labynetos" (son of Nitocris) is Nabonidus. A fanciful representation of Flavius Josephus, in an engraving in William Whistons translation of his works Josephus (37 – sometime after 100 AD),[1] who became known, in his capacity as a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus,[2] was a 1st-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and... For other uses, see Book of Daniel (disambiguation). ... This article cites its sources but does not provide page references. ...

Book of Daniel

Daniel 5:1-4 describes "Belshazzar's Feast" in which the sacred vessels of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, which had been brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar at the time of the Captivity were profaned by the company. The narrative unfolds against the background of the impending arrival of the Persian armies. Solomons Temple (Hebrew: בית המקדש, transliterated Beit HaMikdash), also known as the First Temple, was, according to the Bible, the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. ... Main article: Jew Jewish religion Etymology of Jew  · Who is a Jew? Jewish leadership  · Jewish culture Jewish ethnic divisions Ashkenazi (German and E. Europe) Mizrahi (Arab and Oriental) Sephardi (Iberian) Temani (Yemenite)  · Beta Israel Jewish populations Germany  · France  · Latin America Britain  · Famous Jews by country Jewish languages Hebrew: (Biblical / Modern...

"King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. 4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone."

In consequence of this, during the festivities, a hand was seen writing on the wall of the chamber a mysterious sentence mene mene tekel upharsin, which defied all attempts at interpretation. Some Rabbinic interpertations (notably the mention in the Babylonian Talmud) say that the words were written in code, one possibility was that it was an atbash cipher. Still, their natural denotations of weights and measures were superficially meaningless: "two minas, a shekel and two parts.". In the verb form, they were: mene, to number; tekel, to weigh; upharsin, to divide - literally "numbered, numbered, weighed, divided". When the Hebrew Daniel was called in, he read and interpreted the words. The last word (prs) he read as peres not parsin. His free choice of interpretation and decoding revealed the menacing subtext: "Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting". The divine menace against the dissolute Belshazzar, whose kingdom was to be divided between the Medes and Persians, was swiftly realized: in the last verse we are told that Belshazzar was slain in that same night, and that his power passed to Darius the Mede. The phrase writing on the wall (or sometimes handwriting on the wall) is an expression thats suggests future doom or misfortune, visible to almost anyone. ... The writing on the wall (or sometimes handwriting on the wall) is an expression that suggests a portent of doom or misfortune. ... The first page of the Talmud, in the standard Vilna edition. ... Atbash is a simple substitution cipher in Hebrew. ... Silver half-shekel struck in the Greek colony of Taras, during the Punic occupation. ...

This Biblical story is the source of the popular phrase "the writing on the wall" as a euphemism for impending doom that is so obvious only a fool would not see it coming. It also provides the origin for the similar expression "your days are numbered."

Daniel 5:1-4 calls Nebuchadnezzar the father of Belshazzar. The same claim is made in the deuterocanonical Book of Baruch, which most scholars believe to have been written around the same time, in the second century BC. This may simply have been a mistake on the part of the authors. Some Biblical commentators argue that the statement can be reconciled with extra-Biblical sources by interpreting the term to mean forefather or predecessor. (The Hebrew word for father av is commonly used in the sense of forefather.) The deuterocanonical books are the books that Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Oriental Orthodoxy include in the Old Testament that were not part of the Jewish Tanakh. ... It has been suggested that Epistle of Jeremy be merged into this article or section. ...

For a list of artistic and musical references to the feast, see the article Belshazzar's Feast. Belshazzars Feast refers to an event described in the Book of Daniel, in which the Babylonian king Belshazzar profanes the sacred vessels of the enslaved Jews, and is miraculously slain, leading to their freedom. ...

Rabbinic literature

Belshazzar appears in many works of classical Jewish rabbinic literature.

The chronology of the three Babylonian kings is given in the Talmud (Megillah 11a-b) as follows: Nebuchadnezzar reigned forty-five years, Evil-merodach twenty-three, and Belshazzar was monarch of Babylonia for two years, being killed at the beginning of the third year on the fatal night of the fall of Babylon (Meg. 11b). The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a. ... Important note: This article should not be confused with the five books of the Torah (or Pentateuch) which also consists of five books -- sometimes called scrolls -- (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. ... Amel-Marduk (or Evil-merodach, Merodachs man) (? BC - ca. ...

The references in the Talmud and the Midrash to Belshazzar emphasize his tyrannous oppression of his Jewish subjects. Several passages in the Prophets are interpreted as though referring to him and his predecessors. For instance, the passage, "As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him" (Amos v. 19), the lion is said to represent Nebuchadnezzar, and the bear, equally ferocious if not equally courageous, is Belshazzar. (The book of Amos., nevertheless, is pre-Exilic.) Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש; plural midrashim) is a Hebrew word referring to a method of exegesis of a Biblical text. ... Neviim [נביאים] (Heb: Prophets) is the second of the three major sections in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), following the Torah and preceding Ketuvim (writings). ... The Book of Amos is one of the books of the Neviim and of the Old Testament. ...

The three Babylonian kings are often mentioned together as forming a succession of impious and tyrannical monarchs who oppressed Israel and were therefore foredoomed to disgrace and destruction. The verse in Isaiah xiv. 22, And I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant and son and grandchild, saith the Lord, is applied by these interpretations to the trio: "Name" to Nebuchadnezzar, "remnant" to Evil-merodach, "son" to Belshazzar, and "grandchild" Vashti (ib.). The command given to Abraham to cut in pieces three heifers (Genesis 15:9) as a part of the covenant established between him and his God, was thus elucidated by readers of Daniel as symbolizing Babylonia, which gave rise to three kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-merodach, and Belshazzar, whose doom is prefigured by this act of "cutting to pieces" (Midrash Genesis Rabbah xliv.). Isaiah the Prophet in Hebrew Scriptures was depicted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo. ... Vashti (ושתי) is mentioned in the Book of Esther, a book included in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). ... An angel prevents the sacrifice of Isaac. ...

The Midrash literature enters into the details of Belshazzar's death. Thus the later tradition states that Cyrus and Darius were employed as doorkeepers of the royal palace. Belshazzar, being greatly alarmed at the mysterious handwriting on the wall, and apprehending that some one in disguise might enter the palace with murderous intent, ordered his doorkeepers to behead every one who attempted to force an entrance that night, even though such person should claim to be the king himself. Belshazzar, overcome by sickness, left the palace unobserved during the night through a rear exit. On his return the doorkeepers refused to admit him. In vain did he plead that he was the king. They said, "Has not the king ordered us to put to death any one who attempts to enter the palace, though he claim to be the king himself?" Suiting the action to the word, Cyrus and Darius grasped a heavy ornament forming part of a candelabrum, and with it shattered the skull of their royal master (Cant. R. iii. 4). The name Cyrus (or Kourosh in Persian) may refer to: [[Cyrus I of Anshan]], King of Persia around 650 BC [[Cyrus II of Persia | Cyrus the Great]], King of Persia 559 BC - 529 BC — See also Cyrus in the Judeo-Christian tradition Cyrus the Younger, brother to the Persian king... Darius (in Persian داريوش (Dah-rii-yoosh)) is a common Persian male name. ...

The Sacred Royal Feast

Though the narrative and its details stand outside history, the setting of the feast at which the temple vessels from Jerusalem were desecrated has been remembered from actual Neo-Babylonian cult practice. In Babylon, the image of Marduk was served meals daily in a style befitting the divine king, including musical accompaniment and beautifully-arranged desserts of fruits. After the god's meal, water in a basin was brought and offered to the idol to wash its fingers. According to several extant descriptions, the dishes of food that had been presented to the image were then sent to the king for his consumption. The food had been blessed by its proximity to the god, and the blessing was now transferable to the king. One exception is recorded, on a tablet from Uruk, which mentions that the crown prince— this was Belshazzar— enjoyed the royal privilege. Babylon is the Greek variant of Akkadian Babilu, an ancient city in Mesopotamia (modern Al Hillah, Iraq). ... Marduk (Sumerian spelling in Akkadian: AMAR.UTU solar calf; Biblical: Merodach) was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon permanently became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi (18th century... Uruk (Sumerian Unug, Biblical Erech, Greek Orchoë and Arabic وركاء Warka), was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates, on the line of the ancient Nil canal, in a region of marshes, about 140 miles (230 km) SSE from Baghdad. ...

The ritual importance of the god's sacred leftovers is illustrated in an inscribed claim of Sargon II: Sargon II (right), king of Assyria (r. ...

"the citizens of Babylon [and] Borsippa, the temple personnel, the scholars [and] the administrators of the country who [had] looked upon him (Merodach-baladan) as their master now brought the leftovers of Bel [and] Sarpanitu [of Babylon and] Nabu [and] Tasmetu [of Borsippa] to me at Dur-Ladinni and asked me to enter Babylon"

(Oppenheim, pp 188ff)

Idols of conquered cities were ordinarily brought to Babylon and set in positions of reverence to Marduk within his temple. The Jews, having no idol of Jehovah (YHWH), had been forced to give up the vessels of Solomon's Temple, which, it appears, were used to serve Marduk's sacred repast, ritually shared by Belshazzar. Borsippa was an important ancient city of Mesopotamia (Iraq), built on both sides of a lake about eleven km (7. ... Marduk-apal-iddina II (the biblical Merodach-baladan, also called Marduk-baladan, Baladan and Berodach-baladan) (722–702 BCE), Chaldean prince, who usurped the Babylonian throne in 721. ... Bel can mean: A unit of measurement for proportions and ratios; see Decibel and dB(A) The title of a Semitic god; see Bel (god) A Celtic deity; see Belenus Hindi name of the Bengal Quince tree or its fruit. ... It has been suggested that Nebo (god) be merged into this article or section. ... Jehovah is an English transcription of , which is a specific vocalized spelling of (i. ... The Tetragrammaton in Phoenician (1100 BC to 300 CE), Aramaic (10th Century BC to 0) and modern Hebrew scripts. ...

Belshazzar in popular culture

Robert Frost's poem, "The Bearer of Evil Tidings", is about a messenger from Belshazzar's court. After learning of Belsazzar's overthrow, the messenger flees to the Himalayas rather than facing the deposed monarch's wrath. Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. ... Himalaya, see Himalaya (film). ...

William Walton wrote an oratorio entitled Belshazzar's Feast. Sir William Turner Walton, OM (March 29, 1902–March 8, 1983) was a British composer whose style was influenced by the works of Stravinsky, Sibelius and jazz. ... Belshazzars Feast is the title of an oratorio by the English composer William Walton. ...

The Space Liner Belshazzar, with the player character aboard, was disabled and boarded by Space Pirates in the early CD-ROM adventure game Spaceship Warlock. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Space Pirates are pirates from outer space. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... Spaceship Warlock was an adventure game created by Mike Saenz and Joe Sparks. ...

Belshazzar was featured in season one episode two of the Nickelodeon game show "Legends of the Hidden Temple" entitled "The Golden Cup of Belshazzar". The Red Jaguars ran out of time in the Temple and was unable to win the game. The Golden Cup was located in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey.

See also

Biblical archaeology (reference to Nabonidus cylinder) Biblical archaeology involves the recovery and scientific investigation of the material remains of past cultures that can illuminate the periods and descriptions in the Bible. ... Nabonidus (Akkadian Nabû-nāʾid) was the last King of Babylon, who ruled the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 556 BC to 539 BC. His reign was characterized by his lack of interest in the politics and religion of his kingdom, preferring instead to study the older temples and antiquities in...

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia: Belshazzar
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Baltasar

Reference

A. Leo Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization A(dolph) Leo Oppenheim (7 June 1904 - 21 July 1974), one of the most distinguished Assyriologists of his generation was editor-in-charge of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute 1955-1974 and John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago. ...