Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Daniel 5:4

They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, … – Compare the note at Dan 5:1. Idols were made among the pagan of all the materials here mentioned. The word praised here means that they spake in praise of these gods; of their history, of their attributes, of what they had done. Nothing can well be conceived more senseless and stupid than what it is said they did at this feast, and yet it is a fair illustration of what occurs in all the festivals of idolatry. And is what occurs in more civilized Christian lands, in the scenes of carousal and festivity, more rational than this? It was not much worse to lavish praises on idol gods in a scene of revelry than it is to lavish praises on idol men now; not much less rational to toast gods than it is to toast men.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 4. And praised the gods of gold] They had gods of all sorts, and of all metals; with wooden gods, and stone gods, beside!

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

At the same time insulting the great God of heaven and earth. The name of God is never more profaned than among drunkards and epicures.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

4. praisedsang and shoutedpraises to “gods,” which being of gold, “are their ownwitnesses” (Isa 44:9),confuting the folly of those who fancy such to be gods.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

They drunk wine,…. That is, out of the vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, and perhaps till they were drunk:

and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone; for they had gods of all these materials;

[See comments on Da 1:2], and these they praised by offering sacrifices unto them; or rather by singing songs, and drinking healths, and by ascribing all their victories over the nations of the world to them; as that by their means they had got such large dominions, and such great wealth and treasures, and particularly these vessels of gold and silver; and so insulted and triumphed over the God of Israel, and defied the prophecies and promises of the deliverance of them that went under his name.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The warning signs, the astonishment of Belshazzar, the inability of the wise men to give counsel, and the advice of the queen.

Dan 5:4

Unexpectedly and suddenly the wanton mad revelry of the king and his guests was brought to a close amid terror by means of a warning sign. The king saw the finger of a man’s hand writing on the plaster of the wall of the festival chamber, and he was so alarmed that his whole body shook. The places the sign in immediate connection with the drinking and the praising of the gods. The translation, in the self-same hour, is already shown to be inadmissible (see under Dan 3:6). The Kethiv ( came forth) is not to be rejected as the indefinite determination of the subject, because the subject follows after it; the Keri is to be rejected, because, though it suits the gender, it does not in respect of number accord with the subject following. The king does not see the whole hand, but only , the end of the hand, that is, the fingers which write. This immediately awakened the thought that the writing was by a supernatural being, and alarmed the king out of his intoxication. The fingers wrote on the plaster of the wall over against the candlestick which stood on the table at which the king sat, and which reflected its light perceptibly on the white wall opposite, so that the fingers writing could be distinctly seen. The feast had been prolonged into the darkness of the night, and the wall of the chamber was not wainscotted, but only plastered with lime, as such chambers are found in the palaces of Nimrud and Khorsabad covered over only with mortar (cf. Layard’s Nineveh and Babylon).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Here the Prophet shews more distinctly and clearly how the king insulted the true and only God, by ordering his vessels to be brought to him. For when they had been brought forth, they praised, says he, all their gods of gold and silver; meaning in defiance of the true God they celebrated the praises of their false deities, and thanked them, as we find in Habakkuk. (Hab 1:16.) Although there is no doubt they sacrificed heartily the produce of their industry, as the Prophet there expresses it, yet they exalted their own gods, and thus obliterated the glory of the true God. And this is the reason why the Prophet now takes pains to state those vessels to have been brought from the temple of God ’ s house For he here strengthens the impiety of the king and his nobles for erecting their horns against the God of Israel. There is then a great contrast, between God who commanded his temple to be built at Jerusalem, and sacrifices to be offered to him and false gods. And this was the head and front of Belshazzar’s offending, because he thus purposely rose up against God, and not only tyrannically and miserably oppressed the Jews, but triumphed over their God — the Creator of heaven and earth. This madness accelerated his ultimate destruction, and it occurred for the purpose of hastening the time of their deliverance. Hence I have represented him to have been drawn by God’s great instinct to such madness that vengeance might be ripened.

They drank, says he, wine, and praised their gods. The Prophet does not ascribe the praise of their gods to drunkenness, but he obliquely shews their petulance to have been increased by drink. For if each had been sober at home, he would not have thus rashly risen up against God; but when impiety exists in the heart, intemperance becomes an additional stimulus. The Prophet seems to me to mean this, when he repeats, they were drinking; for he had said, the king and his nobles, his wife, and concubines, were drinking He now inculcates the same thing in similar words, but adds, they drank wine, — meaning their madness was the more inflamed by the excitement of the wine. Then they praised the gods of silver, etc. The Prophet here reproachfully mentions gods of gold, silver, brass, wood, and stone, since we know God to have nothing in common with either gold or silver. His true image cannot be expressed in corruptible materials; and this is, the reason why the Prophet calls all the gods which the Babylonians worshipped, golden, silver, brazen, wooden, and stone. Clearly enough the heathen never were so foolish as to suppose the essence of Deity to reside in gold, or silver, or stone; they only called them images of their deities; but because in their opinion the power and majesty of the deity was included within the material substance, the Prophet is right in so completely condemning their criminality, because we hear how carefully idolaters invent every kind of subtlety. In the present times, the Papacy is a glaring proof how men cling to gross superstitions when they desire to excuse their errors; hence the Prophet does not here admit those vain pretenses by which the Babylonians and other heathens disguise their baseness, but he says, their gods were of silver and gold And why so? for although they orally confessed that gods reign in heaven, (so great was the multitude and crowd of their deities that the supreme God was quite shrouded in darkness,) although therefore the Babylonians confessed their gods to have dwelt in heaven, yet they fled to statues and pictures. Hence the Prophet deservedly chides them for adoring gods of gold and silver. As to his saying, then the vessels were brought, it shews how the slaves of tyrants obey them in the worst actions, because no delay intervened in bringing the vessels from the treasury. Daniel therefore signifies how all the king’s servants were obedient to his nod, and desirous of pleasing a person brutish and drunken; at the same time he shews the shortness of that intemperate intoxication; for he says, —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

Dan 5:4. And praised the gods of gold Here is a kind of competition, or the appearance of a triumph of the false gods over the true one, whom still Nebuchadnezzar had honoured and acknowledged, and prohibited by a solemn decree that any one should speak lightly of him. The competition appears much stronger in the Alexandrine and Coptic versions, which add, “But the everlasting God they praised not.” Such a wanton and sacrilegious insult deserved and called for exemplary punishment.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Dan 5:4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

Ver. 4. They drank wine. ] To the honour of their goddess Shac; for so these feast days were called , being like the Roman saturnalia.

And praised the gods of silver and of gold. ] As if these their dung hill deities had mastered and spoiled the God of Israel, who either would not, or could not defend his temple and people from falling into the power of their invincible conqueror. This was blasphemy in a high degree, and therefore presently punished by God.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

praised: Dan 5:23, Dan 4:37, Jdg 16:23, Jdg 16:24, Isa 42:8, Hos 2:8-13, Rev 9:20, Rev 9:21

of gold: Dan 3:1-7, Dan 3:8-18, Psa 115:4-8, Psa 135:15-18, Isa 40:19, Isa 40:20, Isa 42:17, Isa 46:6, Isa 46:7, Jer 10:4-9, Hab 2:19, Act 17:29, Act 19:24-28, Rev 9:20

Reciprocal: Gen 35:2 – strange Exo 20:23 – General Exo 32:18 – but the 1Ki 1:49 – General Pro 23:33 – and Jer 50:38 – the land Jer 51:41 – the praise Eze 20:32 – to serve Dan 4:31 – the word Hos 7:5 – with scorners Amo 6:7 – and the Amo 8:10 – I will turn Hab 1:11 – imputing Mal 1:12 – The table Luk 6:25 – mourn 1Co 8:5 – that 1Th 5:7 – and they Jam 5:13 – any merry

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Dan 5:4. The writer must have been greatly affected by the conduct of the king and his party. In one unbroken statement he says they <tr(mk wine and praised the gods of gold, etc. Thus an occasion that started out as a royal banquet was turned into a drunken, religious service to dumb idols that were made by human hands.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

5:4 They drank wine, and praised the {d} gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

(d) In contempt of the true God they praise their idols, not that they thought that the gold or silver were gods, but that there was a certain strength and power in them to do them good, which is also the opinion of all idolaters.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes