to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine plural
wine
חַמְרָ֑אcham.Ra'
H2562
wine · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
praised
וְ֠שַׁבַּחוּVe.sha.ba.chu
H7624
to adulate · conjunction + verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine plural
gods
לֵֽאלָהֵ֞יle.la.Hei
H426
God · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
gold
דַּהֲבָ֧אda.ha.Va'
H1722
gold · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
silver
וְכַסְפָּ֛אve.khas.Pa'
H3702
silver (from its pale color) · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
brass
נְחָשָׁ֥אne.cha.Sha'
H5174
copper · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
iron
פַרְזְלָ֖אfar.ze.La'
H6523
iron · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
wood
אָעָ֥א'a.'A'
H636
a tree or wood · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
stone
וְאַבְנָֽאve.'av.Na'
H69
a stone · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Daniel 5:23 But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords,…
Habakkuk 2:19 Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and ther…
Psalms 135:15-18 The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
Revelation 9:20-21 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship de…
Psalms 115:4-8 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
Isaiah 40:19-20 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.
Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Isaiah 46:6-7 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they wo…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Daniel 5:1-9
We have here Belshazzar the king very gay, but all of a sudden very gloomy, and in straits in the fulness of his sufficiency. See how he affronts God, and God affrights him; and wait what will be the issue of this contest; and whether he that hardened his heart against God prospered.
I. See how the king affronted God, and put contempt upon him. He made a great feast, or banquet of wine; probably it was some anniversary solemnity, in honour off his birthday or coronation-day, or in honour of some of their idols. Historians say that Cyrus, who was now with his army besieging Babylon, knew of this feast, and presuming that they then would be off their guard, somno vinoque sepulti - buried in sl…
praised--sang and shouted praises to "gods," which being of gold, "are their own witnesses" (Isa 44:9), confuting the folly of those who fancy such to be gods.
Adam Clarke on Daniel 5:4
And praised the gods of gold - They had gods of all sorts, and of all metals; with wooden gods, and stone gods, beside!
John Gill on Daniel 5:4
They drunk wine,.... That is, out of the vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, and perhaps till they were drunk:
and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone; for they had gods of all these materials; See Gill on Daniel 1:2, and these they praised by offering sacrifices unto them; or rather by singing songs, and drinking healths, and by ascribing all their victories over the nations of the world to them; as that by their means they had got such large dominions, and such great wealth and treasures, and particularly these vessels of gold and silver; and so insulted and triumphed over the God of Israel, and defied the prophecies and promises of the delive…
Verse 4. "They were drinking wine and praising their gods of gold, of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone." How great was their folly! As they drank from golden vessels, they were praising gods of wood and of stone. As long as the vessels had been in the idol-temple of Babylon, God was not moved to wrath, for they had evidently consecrated the property of God to divine worship, even though they did so in accordance with their own depraved views of religion. But after they defiled holy things for the use of men, their punishment followed upon the heels of their sacrilege. Moreover they were praising their own gods and scoffing at the God of the Jews, on the ground that they were drinking from His vessels because of the victory their own gods had bestowed upon them. Applying this figuratively, we should have to say that it applies to all the heretics or to any doctrine which is contrary to truth but which appropriates the words of the Biblical prophets and misuses the testimony of Scripture to suit its own inclination. It furnishes liquor to those whom it deceives and with whom it has committed fornication. It carries off the vessels of God's Temple and waxes drunken by quaffing them; and it does not give the praise to the God whose vessels they are, but to gods of gold and silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone. I think that the golden ones are those which consist of earthly reason. The silver gods are those which possess the charm of eloquence and are fashioned by rhetoric. But those which bring in the fables of the poets and employ ancient traditions containing marked divergences from one another in respect to good taste or folly, such are described as bronze and iron. And those who set forth sheer absurdities are called wooden or stone. The Book of Deuteronomy divides these all into two classes, saying: "Cursed is the man who fashions a graven image and a molten image, the work of the hands of an artificer, and sets it up in a secret place" (Deuteronomy 27:15). For all heretics operate secretly and disguise their fallacious teachings, in order that they may from concealment shoot their arrows against those who are upright in heart.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Babel — (confusion), Bab’ylon (Greek form of Babel), is properly the capital city of the country which is called in Genesis Shinar, and in the later books Chaldea, or the land of the Chaldeans. The first…
Belshazzar — 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…
Wine — The common Hebrew word for wine is yayin, from a root meaning “to boil up,” “to be in a ferment.” Others derive it from a root meaning “to tread out,” and hence the juice of the grape trodden out.…
Belshazzar · King of Babylon — King of Babylon
Brass · .Idols — .Idols
Brass, Or Copper · Made into: Idols — Made into: Idols
Drunkenness · .Belshazzar — .Belshazzar
Entertainments · Often scenes of great intemperance — Often scenes of great intemperance
Feasts · Given by kings — Given by kings
Gold · Was used for: Idols — Was used for: Idols
Idolatry · .Praise — .Praise
Iron · Idols — Idols
Wine · Was used: At all feasts and entertainments — Was used: At all feasts and entertainments
John Calvin on Daniel 5:4
Daniel 5:4
4. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
4. Biberunt vinum, et laudarunt deos aureos, et argenteos, aereos, ferreos, ligneos, et lapideos.
Here the Prophet shews more distinctly and clearly how the king insulted the true and only God, by ordering his vessels to be brought to him. For when they had been brought forth, they praised, says he, all their gods of gold and silver; meaning in defiance of the true God they celebrated the praises of their false deities, and thanked them, as we find in Habakkuk. (Habakkuk 1:16.) Although there is no doubt they sacrificed heartily the produce of their industry, as the Prophe…
The warning signs, the astonishment of Belshazzar, the inability of the wise men to give counsel, and the advice of the queen.
Dan 5:4
Unexpectedly and suddenly the wanton mad revelry of the king and his guests was brought to a close amid terror by means of a warning sign. The king saw the finger of a man's hand writing on the plaster of the wall of the festival chamber, and he was so alarmed that his whole body shook. The בּהּ־שׁעתא places the sign in immediate connection with the drinking and the praising of the gods. The translation, in the self-same hour, is already shown to be inadmissible (see under Dan 3:6). The Kethiv נפקוּ (came forth) is not to be rejected as the indefinite determi…
The gold and silver cups from the Temple in Jerusalem had been taken into captivity along with the people (1:2), but previous Babylonian kings had not defiled them. They were eventually returned to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:7-11). • predecessor (literally father): Belshazzar was the oldest son of Nabonidus; his relationship with Nebuchadnezzar is uncertain. • While they drank from them they praised their idols: If Belshazzar had ever known of the honor Nebuchadnezzar had shown toward the Most High God decades earlier (Dan 4:34-37), he had long forgotten it. Two ancient Greek historians, Herodotus and Xenophon, record the all-night festivities, dancing, and excessive drinking that took place as the c…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
