To understand who King Belshazzar is, one should return to the origins and get acquainted with the kingdom, whose name is Babylonia. This kingdom has one and a half thousand years of history.
Bloody wars, coups d'etats, popular uprisings and religious conflicts - all this happened to the inhabitants of Babylonia.
The capital of the state was the city of Babylon (now Iraq), which was one of the largest cities of the Ancient World, and with which the fate of Belshazzar is directly connected …
Biography of Belshazzar - the last king of Babylon
Obviously, the date of birth of this ruler of the ancient state has sunk into oblivion. It is only known that he lived in the 6th century BC. The last Babylonian king was the son of Nabonidus, a ruler from the X Babylonian dynasty. He became regent around 550 BC, when Nabonidus went to war in Arabia.
There is an opinion that Belshazzar could have been the son of King Nebuchadnezzar, and Nabonidus was only an adoptive father. However, no evidence has survived, and there is no confirmation of this fact. But this controversy gave critics the opportunity to claim the Bible's historical inaccuracy.
Belshazzar's reign ended very sadly - the country turned out to be ruined, famine came. The Babylonian king himself was killed in 539 BC. during the capture of Babylon, carried out by the troops of Cyrus the 2nd - the Persian king.
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The Bible surrounded the name of Belshazzar with a legend - this ruler became a symbol of pride, sacrilege and intemperance. According to ancient tradition, Belshazzar was foretold the death and destruction of his kingdom. The king was warned about this by a mysterious inscription made by a fiery hand on the wall of his palace. Otherworldly, mystical forces intervened in the life of the ruler.
Belshazzar's feasts - the night of madness and death
The capital of Babylonia was besieged - the city was surrounded by numerous troops of the Persian king Cyrus. But the inhabitants of the capital, and the ruler Belshazzar himself, were careless - the city had rich supplies of provisions, which made it possible to indulge in all the pleasures of life. So on the occasion of one holiday, the courtiers and nobles were invited to the palace of the Babylonian king - a total of about a thousand.
At that feast, precious vessels that were taken away from the conquered peoples by the Babylonian conquerors served as table bowls. Between these vessels were bowls from the Jerusalem temple. King Belshazzar with his entourage began to feast, according to the custom of the pagans, praising the Babylonian gods.
In the midst of the celebration, drunken Belshazzar changed in his face, seeing a fiery hand that arose directly from the air. That hand drew four words on the wall, the meaning of which none of those present understood, and these are the words “mene, mene, tekel, uparsin”. Having fulfilled its purpose, the hand disappeared.
Then Belshazzar summons the wise men, and the wise men from all over Babylonia arrive at the palace. But no matter how hard they tried to decipher this inscription, its meaning remained unclear. On the advice of the queen, the prophet Daniel, who was held in captivity, was called, and this is what he answered to the king of Babylon:
- Mene - God has numbered your kingdom, and put an end to it;
- Tekel - you are weighed on the scales and found very light;
- Uparsin - will divide your kingdom and give it to the Persians and Medes.
The story tells that the prophecy was fulfilled - on the same night Belshazzar was killed. Darius the Mede became his successor.
But what led to the fall of Babylon, according to legend, happened by the will of providence? Cyrus, the ruler of the Persians, gathered many people and ordered them to open the ditches for river water. When this order was carried out, the water flooded the ditches and the riverbed became impassable. The Persians went on the offensive. They killed on the spot everyone who came across them. They tried to get to the palace unnoticed by anyone.
The palace gates were closed, but Belshazzar's men, who were supposed to defend the fortifications, were drunk. They were quickly dealt with, but there was a noise, and the Babylonian king ordered to find out what was the matter. The drunken nobles showed the height of intelligence - they opened the gates, and must have been very surprised to see a detachment of Persians. Cyrus's wars rushed into the palace, finished with Belshazzar, as well as with the people who were with him … The legend of Belshazzar entered the text of the Bible - the main book of the Christian religion.
Everything connected with the name "Belshazzar"
This Babylonian king left a fairly noticeable mark in history, and the memory of him has survived to this day.
The expression "Belshazzar's feast" denotes licentiousness, godlessness, and most importantly - orgy, arranged at a very inopportune time. An analogue of this phrase is the saying "feast during the plague"
The history of the ruler of Babylon was reflected in literature - in the 16th century the Comedy of Daniel was written (by G. Sachs), in the 17th century - The Mystical and Genuine Babylon (by Calderon).
Perhaps an inquisitive reader will be interested in the coincidence of Belshazzar's name with the name of this site - Valtasar.ru. There is nothing strange in this - except for the Babylonian king, this name was borne by one of the wise men who worshiped Jesus. Therefore, the site Valtasar.ru owes its name to the mystic sorcerer, and not to the careless king who indulged in various pleasures.