Daniel 5:25

"Then the part of the hand was sent from before him, and this writing was inscribed."

Key Reflection

In the Babylonian court of King Belshazzar, the mysterious hand that appeared to write on the wall was seen as a divine sign and judgment. The original audience would have been deeply familiar with the concept of omens and signs from their Mesopotamian cultural context, recognizing this as a direct intervention by the deity to reveal truth and pronounce judgement upon the king's impious feast, where he had desecrated sacred vessels from Jerusalem's temple.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

And this is the writing that was written -The Babylonians, it would seem, were unacquainted with the “characters” that were used, and of course unable to understand the meaning. SeeDaniel 5:8. The first thing, therefore, for Daniel to do was to read the writing, and this he was able to do without difficulty, probably, as already remarked, because it was in the ancient Hebrew character - a character quite familiar to him, though not known to the Babylonians, whom Belshazzar consulted.

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