The Judgment of Babylon
The judgment of the beast, and the end of Mystery Babylon, described in Daniel 7:26, are foreshadowed by this story.
1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
Dan 5:1
drank wine in the presence of the thousand – the comparison here is to Rev 17:2; and 18:3: the inhabitants of the earth are drunk with the wine of the great harlot.
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 it.
Dan 5:2
the gold and silver vessels…from the temple – these are the vessels mentioned in Daniel 1:2. Babylon, just as “Mystery Babylon the Great” has reached the height of corruption before its fall.
22 You his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this,
Dan 5:22
although you knew all this – the King of Babylon knew the truth of God from his grandfather, Nebudchadnezzer. In Daniel 11:37, this same comment of made of “the beast,” the Pope, who also knew the truth about the most High God from “his fathers,” who were the Apostles.
26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God has numbered your kingdom, and brought it to an end;
Dan 5:26
God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it – the reign of 70 years was prophesied by Jeremiah, “when seventy years are finished I will punish the King of Babylon,” (Jeremiah 25:12; 29:10); and likewise, Daniel is going to the number the days of the kingdom of the beast, in Daniel 8:14, and Daniel 12:11-12.
27 TEKEL; you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.
Dan 5:27
you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting – symbolizing the judgment of the beast, and Babylon.
28PERES; your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
Dan 5:28
your kingdom has been given to the Medes and Persians – a kind of coalition headed by Cyrus the Great of Persia.
30 In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean King was slain.
Dan 5:30
the same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain – see map below of the historical invasion.
