18 As for you, O King, the Most High God gave to Nebuchadnezzar, your father, the kingdom and great power and glory and honour: 19 And because of the great power he gave him, all peoples and nations and languages were shaking in fear before him: some he put to death and others he kept living, at his pleasure, lifting up some and putting others down as it pleased him. 20 But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became hard with pride, he was put down from his place as king, and they took his glory from him: 21 And he was sent out from among the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts', and he was living with the asses of the fields; he had grass for his food like the oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he was certain that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and gives power over it to anyone at his pleasure. 22 And you, his son, O Belshazzar, have not kept your heart free from pride, though you had knowledge of all this; 23 But you have been lifting yourself up against the Lord of heaven, and they have put the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your women, have taken wine in them; and you have given praise to gods of silver and gold, of brass and iron and wood and stone, who are without the power of seeing or hearing, and without knowledge: and to the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not given glory; 24 Then the part of the hand was sent out from before him, and this writing was recorded. 25 And this is the writing which was recorded, Mene, tekel, peres. 26 This is the sense of the words: Mene; your kingdom has been numbered by God and ended. 27 Tekel; you have been put in the scales and seen to be under weight. 28 Peres; your kingdom has been cut up and given to the Medes and Persians. 29 Then, by the order of Belshazzar, they put a purple robe on Daniel, and a gold chain round his neck, and a public statement was made that he was to be a ruler of high authority in the kingdom.
30 That very night Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldaeans, was put to death.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Daniel 5:18-31
Commentary on Daniel 5:18-31
(Read Daniel 5:18-31)
Daniel reads Belshazzar's doom. He had not taken warning by the judgments upon Nebuchadnezzar. And he had insulted God. Sinners are pleased with gods that neither see, nor hear, nor know; but they will be judged by One to whom all things are open. Daniel reads the sentence written on the wall. All this may well be applied to the doom of every sinner. At death, the sinner's days are numbered and finished; after death is the judgment, when he will be weighed in the balance, and found wanting; and after judgment the sinner will be cut asunder, and given as a prey to the devil and his angels. While these things were passing in the palace, it is considered that the army of Cyrus entered the city; and when Belshazzar was slain, a general submission followed. Soon will every impenitent sinner find the writing of God's word brought to pass upon him, whether he is weighed in the balance of the law as a self-righteous Pharisee, or in that of the gospel as a painted hypocrite.