Daniel Chapter 5 Verses 10-12

10 The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall; and the queen said, “O king, live for ever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. 11 There is in your kingdom a man in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him, and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers, 12 because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.”

The queen in verse 10 was probably the wife of Nabonidus, Belshazzar’s mother, since verse 2 tells us that Belshazzar’s ‘wives’ were present at the feast and this queen was not at the feast, but came in when she heard the trouble.

Herodotus tells us that Nabonidus’ wife was named Nitocris.

Whoever this queen was, she was not at the drunken feast. This suggests that she may have been the real power here since someone was presumably worrying about the Persians who were camped outside.

We have said earlier that it is quite likely that Nabonidus married a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar to secure his claim to the throne.

These verses support that claim. This queen seems to have known a lot about Daniel and his dealings with Nebuchadnezzar. This would be easy to explain if Nebuchadnezzar were her father.

Notice that even the queen herself refers to Nebuchadnezzar as the father of Belshazzar.

How did Belshazzar know about the temple vessels in the first place? Perhaps his mother told him about the items that her father had brought back from Jerusalem.

Further, note in verse 10 that the queen entered the king’s presence unbidden.

According to Esther 4:11 she could have been put to death for this under the Persian system. Perhaps a similar system was used by the Chaldeans.

The translators of the Septuagint thought so because they felt this behavior was so odd that they added the phrase ‘The king called the queen on account of the mystery’ to explain it.

But is this really that odd if this queen is Belshazzar’s mother and the wife of the king?

Again we are faced with question of why Daniel was called last and not first.

Since this happens each time he is called, I am inclined to believe that God was behind it and arranged things so that it would happen this way each time. He seems to have wanted all of the other wise men to be proved incapable before Daniel was called – and this is just what happened each time.

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