“‘O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor…But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses. But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven…and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.’…That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain.” Daniel 5:18, 20-23a, 23c, 30a
According to a translation of the Aramaic, the word “father” means ancestor; historical record shows that Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus, the man who succeeded Nebuchadnezzar as king. They exercised power together as co-rulers; in this system of government, the father was the sovereign ruler and the son/heir-apparent was second in command; that explains why, when the writing on the wall appeared, Belshazzar offered the THIRD most powerful position in Babylon as reward, since that was the highest he could legally promote anyone.
The wise men of Babylon were unable to translate because they could not understand the writing. There seems to be a constant theme of spiritual blindness in the rulers and advisers of Babylon; this highlights Daniel’s perception through his faith in God, but also contrasts their lack of faith, which seems rather ironic considering that Nebuchadnezzar (the worst of the lot) thought that he held absolute authority over the spiritual as well as the physical.
The words Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin are Aramaic, translated “numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.” Their literal translation refers to weights and money; Mene is “a mina (50 shekels),” Tekel is “a shekel,” and Paras (singular of Parsin) is “half-shekels.” Each one also draws an analogy to verbs in the Aramaic language; Mene=”to number,” Tekel=”to weigh,” and Parsin=”to divide.” Certainly, this riddle confounded the greatest minds of Babylon, and only Daniel is credited as being able to translate the riddle by the queen (mother) who remembered his past services in the days of Nebuchadnezzar.
Belshazzar is portrayed as being even more foolishly defiant than his grandfather; whereas Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged God as supreme after learning the hard way, Belshazzar ignores his ancestor’s example and does things even Nebuchadnezzar had never dared to do: use the sacred cups from the Temple in Jerusalem to profanely give glory to the pagan deities of Babylon – effectively giving God a slap in the face.
What can we take from this passage? You’ve heard the saying “God will not be mocked;” this is an extreme example of how God rises to the challenge and passes judgment on those who think they can escape the consequences. Belshazzar was doubly blind, because he failed to heed his own conscience and the testimony of his righteous ancestor; don’t be so blinded by the world around you that you lose sight of everything but yourself. Like the Rich Fool in the Gospels, Belshazzar’s time came to an abrupt end, he was found morally bankrupt on God’s scale, and he lost everything he had to the replacement(s) God allowed to enter the place Belshazzar thought he would be safe.