Babylonian Empire 606-536 BC
King Belshazzar: Last King Of Babylon
Belshazzar's Feast: Writing on the wall
Silent as a shadow an uninvited guest enters the royal citadel for
Babylons Last Feast
Writing On The Wall To Fall Of Babylon
Mene Tekel Upharsin
The picture, probably painted about 1636
Rembrandt's source for this painting, the Old Testament Book of Daniel (5: 1-6, 25-8), tells of a banquet Belshazzar, Regent of Babylon, gave for his nobles.
At this banquet he blasphemously served wine in the sacred vessels one of his predecessors had looted from the Temple in Jerusalem.
Rembrandt shows the moment when a divine hand appeared and wrote on the wall a phrase only Daniel could decipher. When transliterated the inscription reads: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation: 'God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; your kingdom is given to the Medes and Persians.' That very night Belshazzar was slain.
Rembrandt derived the form of Hebrew inscription from a book by his friend, the learned Rabbi and printer, Menasseh ben Israel.
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