Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6 :: THE VISION OF BELSHAZZAR

THE VISION OF BELSHAZZAR

By Lord Byron

Note.—According to the account given in the fifth chapter of Daniel, Belshazzar was the last king of Babylon, and the son of the great king Nebuchadnezzar, who had destroyed Jerusalem and taken the Jewish people captive to Babylon. The dramatic incident with which the second stanza of Byron’s poem deals is thus described:

“In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.”

After all the Babylonian wise men had tried in vain to read the writing, the “captive in the land,” Daniel, was sent for, and he interpreted the mystery.

“And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

“This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.

“TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

“PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”

The fulfillment of the prophecy thus declared by Daniel is described thus briefly: “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom.”

The King was on his throne,
The Satraps153-1 throng’d the hall;
A thousand bright lamps shone
O’er that high festival.
A thousand cups of gold,
In Judah deem’d divine—
Jehovah’s vessels hold154-2
The godless Heathen’s wine.

In that same hour and hall
The fingers of a Hand
Came forth against the wall,
And wrote as if on sand:
The fingers of a man;—
A solitary hand
Along the letters ran,
And traced them like a wand.

The monarch saw, and shook,
And bade no more rejoice;
All bloodless wax’d his look,
And tremulous his voice:—
“Let the men of lore appear,
The wisest of the earth,
And expound the words of fear,
Which mar our royal mirth.”

Chaldea’s154-3 seers are good,
But here they have no skill;
And the unknown letters stood
Untold and awful still.
And Babel’s154-4 men of age
Are wise and deep in lore;
But now they were not sage,
They saw—but knew no more.

A court scene with a man pointing at the writing on the wall. THE WRITING ON THE WALL

A Captive in the land,
A stranger and a youth,
He heard the king’s command,
He saw that writing’s truth;
The lamps around were bright,
The prophecy in view;
He read it on that night,—
The morrow proved it true!

“Belshazzar’s grave is made,
His kingdom pass’d away,
He, in the balance weigh’d,
Is light and worthless clay;
The shroud, his robe of state;
His canopy, the stone:
The Mede is at his gate!
The Persian on his throne!”

Ruined city

153-1 The satraps were the governors of the provinces, who ruled under the king and were accountable to him.154-2 These were the sacred “vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem.”154-3 The terms Chaldea and Babylonia were used practically synonymously.154-4 Babel is a shortened form of Babylon.

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