God Seeks To Punish Belshazzar: Daniel 5 v 5 - 6

Daniel 5:5  "In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote." 

These fingers and hand came out of the total darkness, and came to a lighted area of the wall near the lamp to write. This is where the statement {handwriting on the wall} came from. This is the hand of God.  The finger of God had written the Ten Commandments.

This is the same finger, but with an entirely different purpose. This judgment is for the eyes of the king.

Babylonian hands had taken God’s vessels (mentioned twice) and held them in contempt to dishonor and challenge Him. Now the hand that controls all men, and which none can restrain, challenged them. God’s answer to their challenge was clear as we’ll see in verses 23-28.

Archaeologists have unearthed a room on the site of ancient Babylon, located in Iraq, that is plastered and measures 165 feet by 55 feet. It may very well have been Belshazzar’s banquet hall.

Daniel 5:6 "Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another."

The fear of the king is so great, when this happens, that horror came upon his face, and his knees began to quake. He was quaking so badly that the joints of his hips come loose.

The Scripture is similar to the following from the New Testament.

Luke 21:26 "Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken."