Daniel 5:5 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Daniel 5:5
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.
properly · noun, common feminine singular determined + particle of affirmation
forth
נְפַ֙קָה֙ne.fa.ku
H5312
to issue · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine plural
fingers
אֶצְבְּעָן֙'etz.be.'An
H677
something to sieze with · noun, common feminine plural absolute
man’s
אֱנָ֔שׁ'e.Nash
H606
a man · noun, common both genders singular absolute
hand
יַדyad-
H3028
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders singular construct
wrote
וְכָֽתְבָן֙ve.kha.te.Van
H3790
to grave · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, feminine plural absolute
against
לָקֳבֵ֣לlo.ko.Vel
H6903
(adverbially) in front of · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
candlestick
נֶבְרַשְׁתָּ֔אnev.rash.Ta'
H5043
a light · noun, common feminine singular determined + particle of affirmation
upon
עַל'al-
H5922
above · preposition
plaister
גִּירָ֕אgi.Ra'
H1528
lime · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
wall
כְתַ֥לkhe.Tal
H3797
a wall (as gathering inmates) · noun, common both genders singular construct
king’s
מַלְכָּ֑אmal.Ka'
H4430
a king · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
palace
הֵיכְלָ֖אheikh.La'
H1965
a large public building · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
king
וּמַלְכָּ֣אu.mal.Ka'
H4430
a king · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
saw
חָזֵ֔הcha.Zeh
H2370
to gaze upon · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
part
פַּ֥סpas
H6447
the palm (of the hand · noun, common both genders singular construct
hand
יְדָ֖הye.Dah'
H3028
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
wrote
כָתְבָֽהkha.te.Vah
H3790
to grave · verb, qal active participle, feminine singular absolute
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 4:31 While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is…
Daniel 5:24-28 Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.
Job 20:5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cros…
1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
Psalms 78:30-31 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
Proverbs 29:1 He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
Daniel 4:33 The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with…
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…
In the same hour--that the cause of God's visitation might be palpable, namely, the profanation of His vessels and His holy name.
fingers of . . . hand--God admonishes him, not by a dream (as Nebuchadnezzar had been warned), or by a voice, but by "fingers coming forth," the invisibility of Him who moved them heightening the awful impressiveness of the scene, the hand of the Unseen One attesting his doom before the eyes of himself and his guilty fellow revellers.
against the candlestick--the candelabra; where the mystic characters would be best seen. BARNES makes it the candlestick taken from the temple of Jerusalem, the nearness of the writing to it intimating that the rebuke was directe…
Fingers of a man's hand - The fingers were collected about the style or pen as in the act of writing.
John Gill on Daniel 5:5
In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, &c. From heaven, as Jarchi; or they came forth as if they came out of the wall: this was done by the power of God, though it might be by the intervention or means of an angel; so Josephus Ben Gorion (i) says, that an angel came and wrote what follows; and Saadiah says it was Gabriel, called a man, Daniel 11:21, but this is conjecture; however, at the very time the king and his nobles were feasting and revelling, praising their idols, and reproaching the God of Israel, this wonderful phenomenon appeared:
and wrote over against the candlestick, upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; this candlestick was either upon the table, as…
The Church Fathers
Since, you see, he had sung the praises of the idols, deprived as they were of any power to move, and had scorned the God of all, the Lord of all gives him a lesson in his invisible and incorporeal nature by letting him see only fingers writing, the purpose being to instruct him that he would not even see them were it not that he personally had provided the occasion of need.
Verse 5. "At that same hour some fingers appeared as if they were of a human hand, writing something over against the lampstand upon the surface of the wall of the king's palace. And the king watched the joints of the hand as it wrote." He puts it nicely when he says, "At that same hour," just as we earlier read concerning Nebuchadnezzar, "While the saying was yet in the king's mouth." This was in order that the offender might recognize that his punishment was not inflicted upon him for any other reason but his blasphemy. But as for the circumstance that the fingers seemed to be writing on the wall over against the lampstand, this was to avoid having the hand and the written matter appear at too great a distance from the light (to be clearly visible). And the fingers wrote upon the wall of the royal palace in order that the king might understand that the inscription concerned himself.
Accordingly after this happened, fingers of a man's hand came forth, and they wrote before the lamp upon the plaster of the wall of the house of the king. In the case of Nebuchadnezzar it said, "A holy one descended from heaven," [Daniel 4:13] here it says, "fingers of a hand came forth," [Daniel 5:5] Scripture signaling that this is the same Word which was about to be embodied in the end and to assume the figure of a man, so that he may never be looked at as through a form, but having become a man in the flesh and the will of the Father having dwelt with men, he is perfected. And so when the hand wrote writing on the wall, Scripture, in this, indicates this to be the law of God which was engraved on the mountain in tablets. As Scripture says, "and the tablets were written by the finger of God" [Exodus 31:18] and "the writing was the writing of God which was engraved on the tablets." [Exodus 32:16] And so in this way also here, the fingers of a hand were shown to the king alone, which flashed before the lamp, so that what was written there may be considered to be the writing of God. For the light of the hand, after dazzling the light of the lamp, dimmed the light of the lamp, so that the fingers which wrote on the wall might be seen.
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…
Day — The Jews reckoned the day from sunset to sunset (Lev. 23:32). It was originally divided into three parts (Ps. 55:17). “The heat of the day” (1 Sam. 11:11; Neh. 7:3) was at our nine o’clock, and “the…
Hour — First found in Dan. 3:6; 4:19, 33;5:5. It is the rendering of the Chaldee shaah, meaning a “moment,” a “look.” It is used in the New Testament frequently to denote some determinate season (Matt.…
Belshazzar · King of Babylon — King of Babylon
Drunkenness · .Belshazzar — .Belshazzar
Hands, The · Parts of, mentioned: The fingers — Parts of, mentioned: The fingers
Heathen · .Belshazzar — .Belshazzar
House · .Ceiled and plastered — .Ceiled and plastered
Palace · At Babylon — At Babylon
Plaster · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Time · Computed by: Hours, after the captivity — Computed by: Hours, after the captivity
Daniel 5:5
5. 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.
5. In ilia hora egressi sunt digiti manus hominis, et scribebant e regione lucernae [248] super calcern parietis [249] palatii regis, et rex cernebat palmam [250] manus scribentis.
Here Daniel begins his narration of the change which took place, for at that instant the king' acknowledged something sorrowful and disturbing to be at hand. Yet, as he did not at once understand what it was, God gave him a sign as an omen of calamity, according to the language of the profane. In this way G…
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 supernatural hand shocked and terrified the carousers. Yet Belshazzar remained unrepentant (5:29; cp. Jer 38:19-24; Acts 24:25).
Rashi on Daniel 5:5
the fingers...emerged The fingers of a human hand emerged from heaven.
opposite the candelabrum opposite the menorah that was before the table, and a similar word appears (in Tractate Yoma 37a): “made a candelabrum (נִבְרֶשֶׁת) of gold.”
on the plaster on the lime that is plastered on the wall, like (Isa. 27:9): “like crushed chalkstones (אַבְנֵי גֵר),” which resemble lime.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Walls
· Of houses: Usually plastered
— Of houses: Usually plastered
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).
