Belshazzar

Belshazzar is a figure in the Hebrew Bible associated with the fall of Babylon. The name is understood to mean “Bel protect the king.” In the Book of Daniel, he is described as the ruler or king of Babylon during a dramatic crisis that coincides with the city’s downfall to the Persians.

In the biblical narrative, Belshazzar hosts a lavish feast in which the vessels from the Jerusalem temple are defiled. A human hand appears and writes on the wall, presenting a cryptic inscription. The prophet Daniel is summoned, interprets the writing as a divine judgment against Babylon, and foretells the end of the Babylonian kingdom and the rise of the Medes and Persians. That night, Babylon falls to Cyrus the Great, and Belshazzar is slain, with Darius the Mede depicted as the conqueror.

Historically, the last king of Babylon is generally identified as Nabonidus. Babylonian inscriptions and chronicles describe Belshazzar as Nabonidus’s son and co-regent, serving as regent during Nabonidus’s absence. This creates a divergence between the biblical account, which presents Belshazzar as king, and the historical record, which places Nabonidus on the throne. The capture of Babylon is dated to approximately 539 BCE.

Scholarly discussion centers on the chronology and titles used in Daniel, and the extent to which the Belshazzar of the text aligns with or diverges from Babylonian royal titulature. The story’s central episode—writing on the wall and a sudden collapse of Babylon—has had a lasting cultural impact.

Belshazzar’s Feast has entered broader culture as an emblem of sudden divine judgment and the fragility of earthly power, influencing literature, art, and idiomatic expressions such as “the handwriting on the wall.”