The Bible

 

Daniel 5

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1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his nobles, and drank wine before the thousand.

2 Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, might drink in them.

3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, drank in them.

4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

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.

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

7 The king cried aloud to bring in the magicians, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

8 Then came in all the king's wise men, but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation.

9 Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his nobles were confounded.

10 -- The queen, by reason of the words of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet-house. The queen spoke and said, O king, live for ever! let not thy thoughts trouble thee, neither let thy countenance be changed.

11 There is a man in thy kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods was found in him; and the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, [even] the king thy father, made him master of the scribes, magicians, Chaldeans, [and] astrologers;

12 forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and solving of problems, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.

13 Then was Daniel brought in before the king. The king spoke and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Judah?

14 And I have heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and [that] light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.

15 And now the wise men, the magicians, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof; but they could not shew the interpretation of the thing.

16 But I have heard of thee, that thou canst give interpretations, and solve problems. Now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.

17 Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet will I read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation.

18 O thou king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty;

19 and for the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he exalted, and whom he would he humbled.

20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit hardened unto presumption, he was deposed from the throne of his kingdom, and they took his glory from him;

21 and he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses; they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was bathed with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the Most High God ruleth over the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

22 And thou, Belshazzar, his son, hast not humbled thy heart, although thou knewest all this;

23 but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of the heavens; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy nobles, thy wives and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:

24 then from before him was sent the part of the hand, and this writing hath been written.

25 And this is the writing that is written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it;

27 TEKEL, Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting;

28 PERES, Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

29 Then Belshazzar commanded, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and [put] a chain of gold about his neck, and made proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

30 In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.

31 And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, [being] about sixty-two years old.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #364

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364. To number in the spiritual sense means, symbolically, to know the character of something, because a number in the Word does not symbolically mean the number, but the character of a thing (no. 10). Consequently the reference here to "a great multitude, which no one could number," means in the natural sense, literally, that there was such an immense multitude, but in the spiritual sense that no one but the Lord alone knows their character. For the Lord's heaven consists of countless societies - societies distinguished according to the varieties of their affections in general, and likewise of all the inhabitants in each society in particular. The Lord alone knows the character of everyone's affection and arranges all people in an order in accordance with it.

To know this character is what angels mean by numbering, and likewise what is meant in the Word in the following places, as when Belshazzar drank wine from vessels of the temple in Jerusalem, and the writing appeared on the wall, saying,

You have been numbered. You have been numbered. (Daniel 5:2, 3, 5, 25)

...I shall go to the gates of hell; I have been numbered... (Isaiah 38:10)

A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms...! Jehovah of hosts is numbering the army for war. (Isaiah 13:4)

...see who has created these things, who has brought out by number their host. (Isaiah 40:26)

(Jehovah who) numbers the host of the stars... (Psalms 147:4)

...the flocks shall again pass under the hands of him who numbers them. (Jeremiah 33:13)

...my steps are numbered. (Job 14:16)

The houses and towers of Zion and Jerusalem were numbered (Isaiah 22:9-10; 33:18-19, Psalms 48:11-13). Numbering stands for knowing the character of.

From the symbolic meaning of numbers and numbering, it can be seen why David was faced with punishment for numbering the people, the tribes of Israel, and why he said to the prophet Gad, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done" (2 Samuel 24). Moreover, why, when Moses numbered the people and all its tribes, the command was given for each man to "give a ransom for his soul to Jehovah when they were numbered, that that there might be no plague among them when they were numbered" (Exodus 30:12). The reason was that numbering symbolized knowing the character of the people in respect to their spiritual state, thus in respect to the state of the church, meant by the twelve tribes of Israel, which only the Lord knew.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.