Daniel 5:5,6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

In the same hour At the very time; came forth fingers of a man's hand The likeness of a man's hand; and wrote over against the candlestick The angel Gabriel, say the rabbins, directing this hand, and writing by it. Belshazzar seems to have filled up the measure of his iniquity, by this act of gross impiety and dishonour done to the true God. And the king saw It seems, first saw; the part of the hand that wrote It is probable this candlestick was a hanging sconce, near the king, and that the light it cast made him see the hand while it was writing, as well as the writing which remained on the wall. His seeing the hand, but not the person whose hand it was, made the thing more frightful. Then the king's countenance was changed, &c. His face became pale with terror: for although he could not read the writing, and therefore did not know what was its purport, yet a sense of guilt made him forebode that the words had some dreadful meaning; and his thoughts troubled him His remorse of conscience respecting the past, and his fearful apprehensions with regard to the future; so that the joints of his loins were loosed He discovered the disorder of his mind by the trembling which seized his whole body. And his knees smote one against another So soon can the terrors of God shake the loftiest cedars, and terrify the tyrants of the earth! Thus can the Lord spoil the mad mirth of drunken atheists in a moment! “The expressions in this verse, in a collected view, contain such a description of terror as is rarely to be met with; the dead change of the countenance, the perturbation of the thoughts, the joints of the loins becoming relaxed, and the knees smiting against each other, are very strong indications of horror. Horace has, ‘Et corde et genibus tremit;' and Virgil, ‘Tarda trementi genua labant;' but these are far inferior to the picturesque description of Daniel.” Wintle.