Why were astrologers and diviners unable to interpret the writing in Daniel 5:7? Historical Setting of Daniel 5 Belshazzar, co-regent with his father Nabonidus, was hosting a blasphemous banquet in Babylon (539 BC) when “the fingers of a man’s hand” wrote on the plaster of the palace wall (Daniel 5:5). Archaeological finds—such as the Nabonidus Cylinder (British Museum BM 91108) and the Verse Account of Nabonidus—identify Belshazzar as Nabonidus’s eldest son and explain why the promised reward was “the third highest ruler” (Daniel 5:7); Nabonidus held first place, Belshazzar second, and a successful interpreter would rank third. Who Were the “Astrologers and Diviners”? The Aramaic terms kasdîm, ʾaššāpîn, and gāzarîn refer to professional court scholars who combined astronomy, omen texts (e.g., Enūma Anu Enlil), dream manuals, and incantations recorded on cuneiform tablets. Thousands of these tablets recovered from Babylon (e.g., the Kouyunjik Collection) reveal genuine erudition in celestial calculation yet an utter dependence on occult methodology denounced in Isaiah 47:13-14. Their intellectual framework could not accommodate a direct prophetic message from the God of Israel. Spiritual Blindness Versus Divine Revelation Daniel later told Belshazzar, “The Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty” (Daniel 5:18) and declared, “the God who holds in His hand your life…you have not glorified” (v. 23). Scripture consistently teaches that unregenerate minds cannot grasp revelations of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14; cf. Daniel 2:27-28). Thus, the failure of the astrologers was not merely philological; it was theological. The same motif appears when Egyptian magicians could not reproduce the gnats (Exodus 8:18-19) and when Pharaoh’s sages failed to interpret his dreams (Genesis 41:8, 15-16). God sovereignly withholds understanding to expose the futility of pagan wisdom (Isaiah 29:14; 1 Corinthians 1:19-20). Prophetic Content Requiring Moral Insight Even if the scholars had sounded out the words as weights, the play on words—“numbered, weighed, divided”—required moral discernment: • Mene: “God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end” (Daniel 5:26). • Tekel: “You have been weighed on the scales and found deficient” (v. 27). • Peres/Parsin: “Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (v. 28). Only someone acquainted with the covenant-judgment pattern of the Hebrew Scriptures could connect the lexical data to divine verdict. Archaeological Corroboration of the Prophecy The Nabonidus Chronicle (BM 35382) states that Babylon fell to Cyrus’s general Ugbaru on the night of 16 Tishri, Year 17 of Nabonidus—precisely as Daniel records Belshazzar’s death “that very night” (Daniel 5:30). Herodotus (Histories 1.191) and Xenophon (Cyropaedia 7.5.15-30) describe the Medo-Persian stratagem of diverting the Euphrates—paralleling the swift division foretold by the word peres. Comparative Biblical Theology • Divine disclosure to humble servants: Daniel 2; Amos 3:7. • Judgment of idolatrous pride: Proverbs 16:18; Acts 12:21-23. • Supremacy of God over false systems: 1 Kings 18:20-39; Colossians 2:15. Answer Summarized The astrologers and diviners failed because the inscription’s language, script, and arrangement were beyond their scholarly training; because moral and prophetic interpretation demands revelation from the Most High; and because God deliberately nullified occult wisdom to vindicate His prophet and declare His sovereignty. Their inability underscores a recurring biblical theme: “He reveals the deep and hidden things” (Daniel 2:22), and pagan expertise, ancient or modern, cannot rival the disclosure granted through the Spirit of the Living God. |
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