Bible Encyclopedia: Belshazzar

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BELSHAZZAR

bel-shaz'-ar (belsha'tstsar; Baltasar, Babylonian Bel-shar-usur): According to Daniel 5:30, he was the Chaldean king under whom Babylon was taken by Darius the Mede. The Babylonian monuments speak a number of times of a Bel-shar-usur who was the "firstborn son, the offspring of the heart of" Nabunaid, the last king of the Babylonian empire, that had been founded by Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, at the time of the death of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, in 626 B.C. There is no doubt that this Belshazzar is the same as the Belshazzar of Dnl. It is not necessary to suppose that Belshazzar was at any time king of the Babylonian empire in the sense that Nebuchadnezzar and Nabunaid were. It is probable, as M. Pognon argues, that a son of Nabunaid, called Nabunaid after his father, was king of Babylon, or Babylonian king, in Harran (Haran), while his father was overlord in Babylon. This second Nabunaid is called "the son of the offspring of the heart" of Nabunaid his father. It is possible that this second Nabundid was the king who was killed by Cyrus, when he crossed the Tigris above Arbela in the 9th year of Nabunaid his father, and put to death the king of the country (see the Nabunaid-Cyrus Chronicle col. ii, 17); since according to the Eshki-Harran inscription, Nabunaid the Second died in the 9th year of Nabunaid the First. Belshazzar may have been the son of the king who is said in the same chronicle to have commanded the Babylonian army in Accad from the 6th to the 11th year of Nabunaid I; or, possibly longer, for the annals before the 6th and after the 11th year are broken and for the most part illegible. This same son of the king is most probably mentioned again in the same chronicle as having died in the night in which Babylon was captured by Gobryas of Gutium. As Nabunaid II, though reigning at Hatran under the overlordship of his father, is called king of Babylon on the same inscription on which his father is called by the same title; so Belshazzar may have been called king of Babylon, although he was only crown prince. It is probable also, that as Nabunaid I had made one of his sons king of Harran, so he had made another king of Chaldea. This would account for Belshazzar's being called in Daniel 5:30 the Chaldean king, although, to be sure, this word Chaldean may describe his race rather than his kingdom. The 3rd year of Belshazzar spoken of in Daniel 8:1, would then refer to his 3rd year as subking of the Chaldeans under his father Nabunaid, king of Babylon, just as Cambyses was later subking of Babylon, while his fathe r Cyrus was king of the lands. From the Book of Daniel we might infer that this subkingdom embraced Chaldea and Susiana, and possibly the province of Babylon; and from the Nabunaid-Cyrus Chronicle that it extended over Accad as well. That the city of Babylon alone was sometimes at least governed by an official called king is highly probable, since the father of Nergal-har-ucur is certainly, and the father of Nabunaid I is probably, called king of Babylon, in both of which cases, the city, or at most the province, of Babylon must have been meant, since we know to a certainty all of the kings who had been ruling over the empire of Babylon since 626 B.C., when Nabopolassar became king, and the names of neither of these fathers of kings is found among them.

In addition to Nabunaid II, Belshazzar seems to have had another brother named Nebuchadnezzar, since the two Babylonian rebels against Darius Hystaspis both assumed the name of Nebuchadnezzar the son of Nabunaid (see the Behistun Inscription, I, 85, 89, 95). He had a sister also named Ina-esagilaremat, and a second named probably Ukabu'shai'-na.

Belshazzar had his own house in Babylon, where he seems to have been engaged in the woolen or clothing trade. He owned also estates from which he made large gifts to the gods. His father joins his name with his own in some of his prayers to the gods, and apparently appointed him commander of the army of Accad, whose especial duty it was to defend the city of Babylon against the attacks of the armies of Media and Persia.

It would appear from the Nabunaid-Cyrus Chronicle, that Belshazzar was de facto king of the Babylonian empire, all that was left of it, from the 4th to the 8th month of the 17th year of the reign of his father Nabunaid, and that he died on the night in which Babylon was taken by Gobryas of Gutium (that is, probably, Darius the Mede (see DARIUS)).

The objection to the historical character of the narrative of Daniel, based upon the fact that Belshazzar in 5:11, 18 is said to have been the son of Nebuchadnezzar whereas the monuments state that he was the son of Nabunaid, is fully met by supposing that one of them was his real and the other his adoptive father; or by supposing that the queen-mother and Daniel referred to the greatest of his predecessors as his father, just as Omri is called by the Assyrians the father of Jehu, and as the claimants to the Medo-Pers throne are called on the Behistun Inscription the sons of Cyaxares, and as at present the reigning sheikhs of northern Arabia are all called the sons of Rashid, although in reality they are not his sons.

LITERATURE.

The best sources of information as to the life and times of Belshazzar for English readers are: The Records of the Past; Pinches, The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records of Assyria and Babylonia; Sayce. The Higher Criticism and the Monuments; and W. W. Wright's two great works, Daniel and His Prophecies and Daniel and His Critics.

R. Dick Wilson

Strong's Hebrew

1112. Beleshatstsar -- "Bel, protect the king," a Bab. king
... king. Transliteration: Beleshatstsar or Beleshatstsar Phonetic Spelling:
(bale-shats-tsar') Short Definition: Belshazzar. ... king NASB Word Usage Belshazzar ( ...
/hebrew/1112.htm - 6k

1113. Belshatstsar -- a Bab. king
... a Bab. king. Transliteration: Belshatstsar Phonetic Spelling: (bale-shats-tsar')
Short Definition: Belshazzar. ... king NASB Word Usage Belshazzar (7). Belshazzar. ...
/hebrew/1113.htm - 6k

Library

The vision of Belshazzar
... BIBLE STORIES AND RELIGIOUS CLASSICS THE VISION OF BELSHAZZAR. The King was
on his throne, The Satraps throng'd the hall; A thousand ...
/.../wells/bible stories and religious classics/the vision of belshazzar.htm

Belshazzar's Feast
... STORIES VII BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST. Belshazzar the king made a great feast to
a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. ...
/.../various/select masterpieces of biblical literature/vii belshazzars feast.htm

Belshazzar. Dan 5:5,6
... DANIEL Hymn 74 BELSHAZZAR. Dan 5:5,6. John Newton 8,6,8,6. BELSHAZZAR. Dan 5:5,6.
Poor sinners! little do they think. With whom they have to do! ...
//christianbookshelf.org/newton/olney hymns/hymn 74 belshazzar dan 5 56.htm

Mene, Tekel, Peres
... whomsoever he will.22. And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine
heart, though thou knewest all this: 23. But hast lifted ...
/.../maclaren/expositions of holy scripture a/mene tekel peres.htm

The Unseen Watcher
... Through the folly and weakness of Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar,
proud Babylon was soon to fall. Admitted in his youth ...
/.../white/the story of prophets and kings/chapter 43 the unseen watcher.htm

The Handwriting on the Wall
... THE OLD TESTAMENT THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL. Belshazzar, the king, made a great
feast for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine before them all. ...
/.../sherman/the childrens bible/the handwriting on the wall.htm

Weighed in the Balances
... Weighed in the Balances. In the fifth chapter of Daniel we read the history of
King Belshazzar. One chapter tells us all we know about him. ...
//christianbookshelf.org/moody/weighed and wanting/weighed in the balances.htm

Cyrus.
... He beat Belshazzar in battle, and then besieged him in his city; but the Babylonians
had no fears; they trusted to their walls and brazen gates, and knew that ...
//christianbookshelf.org/yonge/the chosen people/lesson xii cyrus.htm

The Scattering of the People
... 'There never was a ruler over Babylon named Belshazzar' so these people said; 'the
last Babylonian king was Nabonides.' A few years ago, however, Belshazzar's ...
/.../duff/the bible in its making/chapter v the scattering of.htm

The Master of the Magicians.
... Those that walk in pride He is able to abase.". Belshazzar was the next
king of Babylon. He made a great feast, and a thousand of ...
/.../lathbury/childs story of the bible/chapter xxxii the master of.htm

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary

Belshazzar

master of the treasure

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Belshazzar

(prince of Bel), the last king of Babylon. In (Daniel 5:2) Nebuchadnezzar is called the father of Belshazzar. This, of course, need only mean grandfather or ancestor. According to the well-known narrative Belshazzar gave a splendid feast in his palace during the siege of Babylon (B.C. 538), using the sacred vessels of the temple, which Nebuchadnezzer had brought from Jerusalem. The miraculous appearance of the handwriting on the wall, the calling in of Daniel to interpret its meaning the prophecy of the overthrow of the kingdom, and Belshazsar's death, accorded in Dan. 5.

ATS Bible Dictionary

Belshazzar

Prince of Bel, the Chaldean name given to Daniel at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 1:7 4:8.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Bel protect the king!, the last of the kings of Babylon (Dan. 5:1). He was the son of Nabonidus by Nitocris, who was the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar and the widow of Nergal-sharezer. When still young he made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and when heated with wine sent for the sacred vessels his "father" (Dan. 5:2), or grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from the temple in Jerusalem, and he and his princes drank out of them. In the midst of their mad revelry a hand was seen by the king tracing on the wall the announcement of God's judgment, which that night fell upon him. At the instance of the queen (i.e., his mother) Daniel was brought in, and he interpreted the writing. That night the kingdom of the Chaldeans came to an end, and the king was slain (Dan. 5:30). (see NERGAL-SHAREZER.)

The absence of the name of Belshazzar on the monuments was long regarded as an argument against the genuineness of the Book of Daniel. In 1854 Sir Henry Rawlinson found an inscription of Nabonidus which referred to his eldest son. Quite recently, however, the side of a ravine undermined by heavy rains fell at Hillah, a suburb of Babylon. A number of huge, coarse earthenware vases were laid bare. These were filled with tablets, the receipts and contracts of a firm of Babylonian bankers, which showed that Belshazzar had a household, with secretaries and stewards. One was dated in the third year of the king Marduk-sar-uzur. As Marduk-sar-uzar was another name for Baal, this Marduk-sar-uzur was found to be the Belshazzar of Scripture. In one of these contract tablets, dated in the July after the defeat of the army of Nabonidus, we find him paying tithes for his sister to the temple of the sun-god at Sippara.

Thesaurus

Belshazzar (8 Occurrences)
... The absence of the name of Belshazzar on the monuments was long regarded as an argument
against the genuineness of the Book of Daniel. ...BELSHAZZAR. ...
/b/belshazzar.htm - 16k

Belshazzar's (1 Occurrence)
... Multi-Version Concordance Belshazzar's (1 Occurrence). Daniel 8:1 In the
third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision ...
/b/belshazzar's.htm - 6k

Belshaz'zar (8 Occurrences)
Belshaz'zar. Belshazzar, Belshaz'zar. Belshazzar's . Multi-Version
Concordance Belshaz'zar (8 Occurrences). Daniel 5:1 Belshazzar...
/b/belshaz'zar.htm - 8k

Mene (2 Occurrences)
... (Dan. 5:25, 26), numbered, one of the words of the mysterious inscription written
"upon the plaister of the wall" in Belshazzar's palace at Babylon. ...
/m/mene.htm - 11k

Upharsin (1 Occurrence)
... Easton's Bible Dictionary And they divide, one of the words written by the
mysterious hand on the wall of Belshazzar's palace (Dan. 5:25). ...
/u/upharsin.htm - 11k

Tekel (2 Occurrences)
... upharcin; Theodotion, Mane, thekel, phares): These are the words that, according
to Daniel's reading, were inscribed on the walls of Belshazzar's palace and ...
/t/tekel.htm - 11k

Nergalsharezer (2 Occurrences)
...Belshazzar, who comes into notice in connection with the taking of Babylon, was
by some supposed to have been the same as Nabonadius, who was called ...
/n/nergalsharezer.htm - 9k

Nergal-sharezer (2 Occurrences)
...Belshazzar, who comes into notice in connection with the taking of Babylon, was
by some supposed to have been the same as Nabonadius, who was called ...
/n/nergal-sharezer.htm - 9k

Darius (26 Occurrences)
... 11:1), "the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes" (9:1). On the death of
Belshazzar the Chaldean he "received the kingdom" of Babylon as viceroy from ...
/d/darius.htm - 24k

Cyrus (20 Occurrences)
... Cyrus was a great military leader, bent on universal conquest. Babylon fell before
his army (BC 538) on the night of Belshazzar's feast (Dan. ...
/c/cyrus.htm - 39k

Bible Concordance

Belshazzar (8 Occurrences)

Daniel 5:1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

Daniel 5:2 Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink from them.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

Daniel 5:9 Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his face was changed in him, and his lords were perplexed.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

Daniel 5:22 You, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this,
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

Daniel 5:29 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

Daniel 5:30 In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean King was slain.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

Daniel 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head on his bed: then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

Daniel 8:1 In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, even to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

Subtopics

Belshazzar

Belshazzar: King of Babylon

Related Terms

Belshazzar's (1 Occurrence)

Belshaz'zar (8 Occurrences)

Mene (2 Occurrences)

Upharsin (1 Occurrence)

Tekel (2 Occurrences)

Nergalsharezer (2 Occurrences)

Nergal-sharezer (2 Occurrences)

Darius (26 Occurrences)