And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.
Darius the Median took the kingdom - i:e., Cyaxares II, the son and successor of Astyages, B.C. 569-536. Though Koresh, or Cyrus, was leader of the assault, yet all was done in the name of Darius; therefore he alone is mentioned here; but Daniel 6:28 shows Daniel was not ignorant of Cyrus' share in the capture of Babylon. Isaiah 13:17; Isaiah 21:2 confirm Daniel in making the Medes the leading nation in destroying Babylon. So also Jeremiah 51:11; Jeremiah 51:28. Herodotus, on the other hand, omits mentioning Darius, as that king, being weak and sensual, gave up all the authority to his energetic nephew, Cyrus (Xenophon, 'Cyropaedia,' 1: 5; 8: 7).
Being about threescore and two years old. This agrees with Xenophon ('Cyropaedia,' 8: 5, 19) as to Cyaxares II.
Remarks:
(1) Babylon's cup of guilt was now almost full, and needed but one crowning act of profanity to be added, to make it overflow with vengeance on the transgressor. The messenger of God's wrath, Cyrus, was at the gates of the doomed city-a fact which might be thought well calculated to arouse the most careless to serious reflection: and yet this was the time that Belshazzar the king chose wherein to "make a great feast" for his nobles. God gave him up to a judicial infatuation, so that, relying on the fortifications and abundant provisions of the city, he despised the besieging army. Security and sensuality are the sure forerunners of the sinner's doom. When the eyes of the culprit are covered, he is on the very verge of his execution.
(2) While Belshazzar was under the influence of wine, he dared to do a deed of audacious impiety which brought down the immediate interposition of the insulted Majesty of heaven. Not from any necessity, or to shed honour on the banquet, but in reckless and wanton profanity, he caused the sacred vessels of the temple of Yahweh to be brought forth; and he, his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them, while they sang the praises of their gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone, as though these were above Yahweh, the Lord God of heaven and earth. How often do intoxicating drinks tempt men to daring acts of ungodliness, which in their sober times they would be afraid to venture on! Intoxication does not excuse sin, but rather adds sin to sin.
(3) In order to mark plainly the inseparable connection of impious pride and the divine punishment, "the same hour" (Daniel 5:5) that witnessed the king's profanation of the holy name of Yahweh, and of His consecrated vessels, was the hour in which the fingers of the invisible God wrote, full in the view of the king and his impious courtiers and mistresses, the awful sentence of his doom. The very walls of the palace, which were covered with flattering praises, in cuneiform writing, of the exploits of the Babylonian kings, now presented to Belshazzar's eyes a mysterious inscription, from which his guilty conscience already foreboded nothing but evil. The king's bright countenance in a moment "was changed," his thoughts were troubled, his whole nervous frame was unstrung, and "his knees smote one against another" (Daniel 5:6):
`The monarch saw and shook, And bade no more rejoice; All bloodless wax'd his look,
And tremulous his voice.'
How instantaneously God can make the stoutest sinner to tremble! Nothing more is needed, in order to trouble, agitate, and unnerve him, than that his own thoughts and fears should be let loose upon him. No anguish can exceed that of a self-accusing conscience suddenly awakened, in the midst of carnal mirth, to a realizing sense of the terrors of the Lord.
(4) After that all the sages of Babylon had attempted in vain to read and interpret the mysterious writing, Daniel is at last consulted, by the advice of the queen-mother, probably Nitocris. His past services, which had been lost sight of in the corrupt court of Belshazzar, were again brought into view; and the king is reminded that, though Daniel has been for long neglected, yet that Belshazzar's forefather, Nebuchadnezzar, had treated him as one "in whom was the spirit of the holy gods, and light, understanding, and excellent wisdom" (Daniel 5:11; Daniel 5:14). The ungodly great men of the world despise the godly in time of prosperity; but are most glad to avail themselves of their services in times of adversity. Estimating all things, even spiritual realities, by the standard of money, they think that the godly do the same; and therefore they try to bribe the servant of God (Daniel 5:17) to procure for them deliverance from wrath and an easy mind. But the true child of God will show a spirit superior to the love of gain, even as Daniel agreed to read and interpret the writing, but declined to accent the king's gifts and rewards. Nothing tends more to injure a believer's usefulness than that he should be seen by the world, like Balaam and Gehazi, to be greedy of gain: and, on the contrary, nothing tends more to make the worldly to feel that believers are influenced by principles far above their own, than that they should see the children of God, as Daniel and Paul (Acts 20:33-35), ready to do whatever good they can, without regard to worldly advantage.
(5) Daniel, with characteristic faithfulness, sets before the king his great sin. The most high God, of His own grace, had given to Nebuchadnezzar his forefather an universal and absolute monarchy, with majesty in the eyes of his subjects, glory from a succession of victories, and honour from the beautification of his capital (Daniel 5:18-19). That monarch, however, instead of ascribing the glory to God, had his heart lifted up "by his greatness," and "his mind hardened in pride" (Daniel 5:20); therefore the God who gave also took away for a time his kingly throne and glory from him: Nebuchadnezzar was driven from the sons of men, and as he had sunk himself from man's true dignity by severing himself from dependence on God, his heart was, in righteous retribution, made like the beasts: and being spiritually untamed, "like a wild ass' colt" (Job 11:12), "his dwelling was with the wild asses, until he knew that the most high God ruleth in the kingdom of men" (Daniel 5:21).
Yet, though knowing all this, Belshazzar his grandson had not humbled his heart (Daniel 5:22), but had "lifted up himself against the Lord of heaven," and had advanced to a degree of pro fanity which Nebuchadnezzar had never reached, making the vessels of Yahweh the instruments of his unhallowed revelry, and of that of his lords and concubines; while at the same time he and they praised their senseless idols, robbing the God in whose hands his breath was, and whose were all his ways, of the glory which is his due (Daniel 5:23): therefore, said Daniel, God sent forth the mysterious hand which wrote his doom. God had numbered the years of his empire, and that number was now completed (Daniel 5:26). Weighed in the balances of God's truth, he is found wanting in moral weight (Daniel 5:27). His kingdom was now to be divided between the Medes and Persians (Daniel 5:28). What a picture we have here of every reprobate sinner's course and final doom! Unwarned by the judgments inflicted on others before him, on account of pride and rebellion against God, the sinner still takes no heed to glorify the God in whose hand his breath is, and whose are all his ways.
Instead of humbling himself in repentance, he either openly or else virtually lifts up himself against the Lord of heaven, following after worldliness, covetousness, or sensuality as his portion, and making the perishing things of time his idol. At last judgment, long deferred in mercy, goes forth. God brings to the appointed end the allotted number of the sinner's days. Then follows the judgment whereby, weighed in the balances of God, he is found wanting in the only thing which carries weight with God-faith working by love. His past privileges are taken from him forever, and given to another, while he himself is "cut asunder, and his portion is appointed with the hypocrites; where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 24:51).
(6) The writing was interpreted by Daniel in an early part of the night, and before the night closed, both the writing and its interpretation were proved, in the awful fulfillment, to be true, Belshazzar having been slain, the city taken, and the Babylonian kingdom divided among the Medes and Persians. Let the impenitent be warned that no one tittle of God's writing in His Word shall fail to come to pass: alike the self-righteous, when weighed in the balance of the law, and the formalist and hypocrite, weighed in the balance of the Gospel, shall be found wanting, and shall suffer accordingly. Lord, do thou root out the pride of our natural hearts, and clothe us with humility! "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom"! (Psalms 90:12.) "Receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear"! (Hebrews 12:28.)