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BELSHAZZAR

(Heb. bēlšaʾṣṣar;
Akk. bēl-šar-uṣur)

The ruler of Babylon during the time of Daniel. According to the Bible, he was killed when the city was captured by the Medes and Persians in 539 b.c. (Dan. 5:30).

Belshazzar ruled in place of his father Nabonidus (556-539), who was in Arabia for an extended period of time. Nabonidus had entrusted the army and kingship to his son, who was apparently considered co-regent, a unique situation in Mesopotamian history. Belshazzar, however, was never called king, nor did he take part in the New Year Festival. His tenure in Babylon lasted until the 14th year of his father’s reign (ca. 543), which may have been when Nabonidus returned.

A number of legal texts, contracts, and letters describe Belshazzar as crown prince and delineate his duties as co-ruler, including overseeing the temple estates of Uruk and Sippar and leasing out temple land. According to the Nabonidus Chronicle, Belshazzar was a grandson of Nebuchadnezzar II (cf. Bar. 1:11-12), but this may have been an attempt to justify his father’s reign, since Nabonidus was not part of the royal family.

The book of Daniel may have dated events to Belshazzar’s rule (cf. Dan. 7:1; 8:1), although cuneiform texts reckoned them by the reign of his father. Belshazzar’s bizarre banquet (Dan. 5) does not appear in extrabiblical sources, and there is no hint that the kingdom was about to fall. His name abruptly disappears from records in 543. He may have been captured in Babylon in 539 or defeated by the Persian Cyrus while commanding the Babylonian forces at Opis.

Belshazzar is also mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus (Hist. 1.188) and Josephus (Ant. 10.254).

Bibliography. R. P. Dougherty, Nabonidus and Belshazzar. Yale Oriental Series 15 (New Haven, 1929); A. K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (Locust Valley, 1975).

Mark W. Chavalas

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BELSHAZZAR

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)