Turning to the Heaven-sent message on the wall, the prophet read, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.”Daniel 5:25. The hand that had traced the characters was no longer visible, but these four words were still gleaming forth with terrible distinctness; and now with bated breath the people listened while the aged prophet declared:
(PK 530.1)
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“This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Peres; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”Daniel 5:26~28.
(PK 530.2)
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In that last night of mad folly, Belshazzar and his lords had filled up the measure of their guilt and the guilt of the Chaldean kingdom. No longer could God’s restraining hand ward off the impending evil. Through manifold providences, God had sought to teach them reverence for His law. “We would have healed Babylon,” He declared of those whose judgment was now reaching unto heaven, “but she is not healed.”Jeremiah 51:9. Because of the strange perversity of the human heart, God had at last found it necessary to pass the irrevocable sentence. Belshazzar was to fall, and his kingdom was to pass into other hands.
(PK 530.3)
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As the prophet ceased speaking, the king commanded that he be awarded the promised honors; and in harmony with this, “they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.”Daniel 5:29.
(PK 530.4)
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More than a century before, Inspiration had foretold that “the night of ... pleasure” during which king and counselors would vie with one another in blasphemy against God, would suddenly be changed into a season of fear and destruction. And now, in rapid succession, momentous events followed one another exactly as had been portrayed in the prophetic scriptures years before the principals in the drama had been born.
(PK 531.1)
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While still in the festal hall, surrounded by those whose doom has been sealed, the king is informed by a messenger that “his city is taken” by the enemy against whose devices he had felt so secure; “that the passages are stopped, ... and the men of war are affrighted.”Jeremiah 51:31, 32. Even while he and his nobles were drinking from the sacred vessels of Jehovah, and praising their gods of silver and of gold, the Medes and the Persians, having turned the Euphrates out of its channel, were marching into the heart of the unguarded city. The army of Cyrus now stood under the walls of the palace; the city was filled with the soldiers of the enemy, “as with caterpillars” (Jeremiah 51:14); and their triumphant shouts could be heard above the despairing cries of the astonished revelers.
(PK 531.2)
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“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain,”(Daniel 5:30) and an alien monarch sat upon the throne.
(PK 531.3)
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Clearly had the Hebrew prophets spoken concerning the manner in which Babylon should fall. As in vision God had revealed to them the events of the future, they had exclaimed: “How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!”(Jeremiah 51:41) “How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!”(Jeremiah 50:23) “At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.”Jeremiah 50:46.
(PK 531.4)
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“Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed.”Jeremiah 51:8. “The spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the Lord God of recompenses shall surely requite. And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.”Jeremiah 51:56, 57.
(PK 532.1)
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“I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord. The Lord hath opened His armory, and hath brought forth the weapons of His indignation: for this is the work of the Lord God of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.”Jeremiah 50:24, 25.
(PK 532.2)
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“Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is His name: He shall throughly plead their cause, that He may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.”Jeremiah 50:33, 34.
(PK 532.3)
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Thus “the broad walls of Babylon” became “utterly broken, and her high gates ... burned with fire.” Thus did Jehovah of hosts “cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease,” and lay low “the haughtiness of the terrible.” Thus did “Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency,” become as Sodom and Gomorrah—a place forever accursed. “It shall never be inhabited,” Inspiration has declared, “neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces.”“I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts.”Jeremiah 51:58; Isaiah 13:11, 19-22; 14:23.
(PK 532.4)
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To the last ruler of Babylon, as in type to its first, had come the sentence of the divine Watcher: “O king, ... to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.”Daniel 4:31.
(PK 533.1)
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“Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon,
Sit on the ground: there is no throne....
Sit thou silent,
And get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans:
For thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.”Isaiah 47:1, 5.
(PK 533.2)
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“I was wroth with My people, I have polluted Mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: Thou didst show them no mercy; ...”Isaiah 47:6.
(PK 533.3)
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“And thou saidst, I shall be a lady forever: So that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, Neither didst remember the latter end of it.”Isaiah 47:7.
(PK 533.4)
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