Belshazzar's Feast

Daniel lived on in Babylon and, later King Nebuchadnezzar died and his son. Belshazzar, became King. 

One day, King Belshazzar gave a great feast for a thousand of his lords. To show off his riches, he ordered his servants to bring him the gold and silver cups that his father had stolen from the Temple in Jerusalem.

King Belshazzar told his servants to fill the cups with wine, and he, and his lords and wives drank, toasting their own gods. They were all laughing and shouting when, suddenly, they saw a human handwriting on a wall. 

They watched in silence, and the King was so frightened that his knees shook.

'Call all my wise men," he croaked. When they came, he said; 'The man who can tell me what these words mean shall be the third ruler of my kingdom. 

But none of the wise men could explain them.

Then the Queen remembered that Daniel had told the King what his dream meant. 

Daniel was summoned to the King. 'Tell me what this means, and I'll make you rich and powerful, said the King.

Daniel looked at the writing. Then he said; 'You have shown disrespect to God by drinking to your gods from the cups taken from His Temple. Your kingdom will be divided between the Medes and the Persians.

That night. Daniel's warning came true. The Medes and Persians captured the kingdom. Belshazzar was killed, and Darius of the Medes was made King of Babylon.


Belshazzar's Feast

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The word 'Bible', is the equivalent of the Greek word biblia (diminutive from bı́blos, the inner bark of the papyrus), meaning originally 'books.' The phrase 'the books' (ta biblia ) occurs in Daniel 9:2 (Septuagint) for prophetic writings. 

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to Sirach it designates generally the Old Testament Scriptures; similarly in 1 Macc 12:9 ("the holy books"). The usage passed into the Christian church for Old Testament (2 Clem 14:2), and by and by (circa 5th century) was extended to the whole Scriptures.

Bibliotheca Divina

Jerome's name for the Bible (4th century) was "the Divine Library" (3) Afterward came an important change from plural to singular meaning. In process of time this name, with many others of Greek origin, passed into the vocabulary of the western church; and in the 13th century, by a happy solecism, the neuter plural came to be regarded as a feminine singular, and 'The Books' became by common consent 'The Book' (biblia, singular), in which form the word was passed into the languages of modern Europe" (Westcott, Bible in the Church, 5).