Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
To Belshazzar, drunken and profaning the sacred vessels, a hand appears writing on the wall. Second, in verse 13, Daniel, having been summoned, reads the writing: mane, tekel, phares; and teaches that through these things destruction is portended for the king. Third, in verse 30, Belshazzar is killed, and Darius succeeds him.
Note: This chapter, according to the order of time, should have been placed after chapters VII and VIII; but the Prophet, as I said in Canon III, often does not preserve the order. Daniel therefore connects this chapter to the preceding one, so as to weave together the history and the similar end of the kings of Babylon, namely of Nebuchadnezzar the father and Belshazzar the son. For Daniel here first narrates all the histories together up to chapter seven; then from there up to chapter XIII, he follows his visions and prophecies together in order.
Vulgate Text: Daniel 5:1-31
1. Belshazzar the king made a great feast for his thousand nobles: and each one drank according to his age. 2. Therefore, now drunken, he commanded that the golden and silver vessels be brought, which Nebuchadnezzar his father had carried away from the temple that was in Jerusalem, that the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3. Then the golden and silver vessels were brought, which he had carried away from the temple that was in Jerusalem: and the king, and his nobles, his wives and concubines drank from them. 4. They drank wine, and praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone. 5. In that same hour there appeared fingers, as it were of a man's hand writing opposite the lampstand on the surface of the wall of the royal hall: and the king watched the joints of the hand writing. 6. Then the king's face was changed, and his thoughts troubled him: and the joints of his loins were loosened, and his knees struck one against the other. 7. The king therefore cried out loudly to bring in the magi, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king, speaking, said to the wise men of Babylon: Whoever shall read this writing and show me its interpretation, shall be clothed in purple, and shall have a golden chain about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in my kingdom. 8. Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could neither read the writing nor indicate its interpretation to the king. 9. Wherefore King Belshazzar was greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed: and his nobles also were disturbed. 10. But the queen, on account of what had happened to the king and his nobles, entered the banquet hall; and speaking said: O king, live forever: let not your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countenance be changed. 11. There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him: and in the days of your father, knowledge and wisdom were found in him; for King Nebuchadnezzar your father appointed him chief of the magi, enchanters, Chaldeans and soothsayers — your father, I say, O king: 12. because a more ample spirit, and prudence, and understanding and interpretation of dreams, and showing of secrets, and solving of knotty problems, were found in him, that is in Daniel: to whom the king gave the name Belteshazzar. Now therefore let Daniel be called, and he will tell the interpretation. 13. Then Daniel was brought in before the king. To whom the king, speaking first, said: Are you Daniel, of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judea? 14. I have heard of you, that you have the spirit of the gods: and that knowledge and understanding and greater wisdom have been found in you. 15. And now the wise men, the magi, have come in before me, to read this writing and show me its interpretation: and they could not declare the meaning of this discourse. 16. But I have heard of you, that you can interpret obscure things, and loose what is bound: if therefore you can read the writing, and show me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple, and shall have a golden chain about your neck, and shall be the third prince in my kingdom. 17. To which Daniel, answering, said before the king: Let your gifts be for yourself, and the rewards of your house
give to another: but I will read the writing for you, O king, and will show you its interpretation. 18. O king, the Most High God gave kingdom and magnificence, glory and honor to Nebuchadnezzar your father. 19. And because of the magnificence that He had given him, all peoples, tribes, and tongues trembled and feared him: whom he willed, he slew: and whom he willed, he struck: and whom he willed, he exalted: and whom he willed, he humbled. 20. But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit hardened unto pride, he was deposed from the throne of his kingdom, and his glory was taken away: 21. and he was cast out from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: he ate grass also like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High has dominion in the kingdom of men: and whomever He wills, He raises up over it. 22. And you, his son Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all these things: 23. but you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven: and the vessels of His house have been brought before you: and you, and your nobles, and your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine in them: and you have praised the gods of silver, and gold, and bronze, iron, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor feel; but the God who has your breath in His hand, and all your ways, you have not glorified. 24. Therefore from Him was sent the part of the hand, which wrote this that was inscribed. 25. And this is the writing that was set down: Mane, Thecel, Phares. 26. And this is the interpretation of the discourse, Mane: God has numbered your kingdom, and has finished it. 27. Thecel: you have been weighed in the balance, and have been found wanting. 28. Phares: your kingdom has been divided, and has been given to the Medes and Persians. 29. Then by the king's command, Daniel was clothed with purple, and a golden chain was put about his neck: and it was proclaimed concerning him that he should have power as the third ruler in the kingdom. 30. That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. 31. And Darius the Mede succeeded to the kingdom, being sixty-two years old.
Verse 2: Therefore, Now Drunken, He Commanded
2. THEREFORE, NOW DRUNKEN, HE COMMANDED. — "The Hebrews hand down this story, says St. Jerome: up to the seventieth year, in which Jeremiah had said that the captivity of the Jews was to be dissolved, Belshazzar feared his rule; but when it was completed, thinking God's promise had been mocked, turning to joy, he made a great feast, insulting as it were the hope of the Jews, and the vessels of the temple of God; but immediately vengeance followed," when Belshazzar was killed in this feast, and Babylon was captured.
See here to what drunkenness brought Belshazzar. Hear St. Basil, homily On Drunkenness: Water does not extinguish fire, but wine extinguishes reason: the water of the sea submerges ships, the wine of the vine submerges men: the souls of drunkards are submerged in wine. Vigilance and sobriety make men, drunkenness makes beasts of men. Hence Isaiah says, chapter XXVIII, 7: "They have been swallowed up by wine." Drunkards swallow wine, but are swallowed up by wine. And the Wise Man, Proverbs XXIII, 34: "You will be like a drowsy helmsman, having lost the rudder." For the drunkard loses the rudder of reason.
Second, just as drunkenness extinguishes the use of reason, so it arouses the wicked desires of the soul. Isaiah V, 11: "Woe to you who rise in the morning to pursue drunkenness, and to drink until evening, that you may burn with wine!" The Septuagint translates: For wine will kindle or burn them. See what was said there. Hence St. Basil calls the drunkard a voluntary demon. The drunkard is therefore worse than a demon, because he is a voluntary demon, while the demon is involuntarily a demon. The possessed are tormented by the demon, but unwillingly and by compulsion: but the drunkard is tormented by drunkenness, because it pleases him.
Third, drunkenness makes the mouth, eyes, nostrils, and all the organs of the senses into the most bitter and foul sewers of pleasure, so that drunkards are not men, but swine, indeed more loathsome than swine. St. Augustine, sermon 231 On the Season, says drunkards are like foul swamps, in whose dirty water serpents, frogs and worms are born.
Fourth, St. Paul to the Ephesians V, 18: "Do not," he says, "be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness." St. Jerome, book II Against Jovinian, chapter VI: "The eating," he says, "of flesh, and the drinking of wine, and the fullness of the belly, is a seedbed of lust;" for "without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus grows cold." Hear a horrible example, which the author of the sermon to the Brethren in the desert relates, as found in St. Augustine, sermon 33: "Behold," he says, "today, having suffered drunkenness, he wickedly assaulted his pregnant mother, wished to violate his sister, killed his father, and wounded two sisters unto death."
Fifth, the more the belly is filled, the more the sense of the mind is blunted, and the man grows dull. For from a fat belly a keen sense cannot be born. Again, as St. Chrysostom says, homily 1 to the People: "The nature of earth vexed by a superabundance of water is not so continually dissolved, as the path of the body is softened, washes away, and is rendered feeble when continually gorged with the drinking of wine."
Sixth, St. Augustine above: "Let drunkards consider," he says, "whether they are not to be judged worse than animals. For since animals will not drink more than they need, those men take double and triple the drink that is good for them."
Seventh, drunkards from their debauchery continually drowse, are heavy-headed, yawn, exhibit dimness in their eyes and nausea in their stomachs. And, as St. Basil says: "You may see them with livid eyes, pallid skin, heavy breath, stammering tongue, low and confused voice, with feet weak and tottering like children's." Therefore Anacharsis judged that the best remedy for drunkenness was to observe the unseemly and foul behavior of drunkards, which is such that St. Chrysostom, homily 1 to the People, calls drunkenness the disgrace of the human race. Hence the Lacedaemonians used to show drunken slaves to their boys, so they might see what a deformed spectacle a drunken man is, and how similar he is to a madman.
Eighth, Athenaeus, book XI, calls a great goblet a silver well, into which the drunkard falls, suffocating his soul and reason, and submerging himself and all he has. And St. Augustine above calls drunkenness a well of hell. See more noted about drunkenness at Genesis XIX, at the end.
Verse 5: In that Same Hour There Appeared Fingers, as It were of a Man's Hand
5. IN THAT SAME HOUR THERE APPEARED FINGERS, AS IT WERE OF A MAN'S HAND. — Lyranus from the word "as it were" infers that this hand did not truly exist, but was only in the king's imagination, and hence was not seen by others. But both claims are false. For Scripture says this hand wrote on the wall mane, tekel, phares; and that Daniel read these things written there; while the others saw the letters, but could not read or interpret them. He says therefore "as it were a man's hand," because it was not truly a man's hand, but one similar to it, formed from condensed air, and assumed by an angel, who through it was writing on the wall.
WRITING OPPOSITE THE LAMPSTAND — so that by the light of the nearby lampstand this writing could be read: for in a nocturnal supper, there was need of a lampstand and light. So says St. Jerome. Moreover the writing hand appeared, not the one writing, so that the king might see that an ambush was being prepared for him, and death was being contrived; but he would remain completely ignorant of the author: and thus he would only see the joints, not recognize the hand, says Pineda on Job chapter XVII, 10.
OF THE ROYAL HALL — so that the king and the diners might know that this writing pertained to them, says St. Jerome. Here that common proverb was true: "Where there is plenty, there is a swelling; where there is honey, there is gall;" which Plautus in the Amphitryon declares in these words: "It pleased the gods that from the same summit both pleasure and its companion sorrow should follow."
Verse 8: They Could not Read the Writing
8. THEY COULD NOT READ THE WRITING. — You ask, why? Some Hebrews answer that this writing was in Hebrew, not Chaldaic, and therefore could not be read by the Chaldeans: but even if we grant it was Hebrew, who would believe that no one among the Chaldeans knew Hebrew? especially since Hebrew and Chaldaic differ only in dialect, just as Attic and Doric. Second, Rabbi Saadias answers that they could not read it because the letters were changed or transposed: but this is as fictitious as it is to be rejected. Third, others answer that these were foreign, extraordinary and unusual letters. So Pineda, book V On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter XIII. Fourth, others say the Chaldeans were impeded by God, so that this glory might be reserved for Daniel. Fifth, more probably Maldonatus and Antonius Fernandius, vision XXIII, section 1, hold that only the initial letters of each word were written, namely M. T. P. For thus Hebrew printers at the beginning of a work inscribe a verse of a psalm by initial letters only, and thus was formed Maccabi, that is Maccabeus, from the initial letters of Exodus XV, 11: Mi camocha baelim Jehova, that is: Who is like You among the mighty, O Lord? For the Maccabees bore this emblem before their camps, as a badge of war and victory.
So also the Emperor Valens, inquiring of a necromancer who would reign after him, the magician answered that it would be one whose name's first letters are THEOD. (the demon indicated the Emperor Theodosius). Therefore Valens ordered all who were called Theodore, or Theodosius, or Theodulus, to be killed, says Socrates, book IV, chapter XV.
So also to the Emperor Maurice (because he had resisted St. Gregory, and had not come to the aid of him and of Rome when it was besieged by Aistulf) it was divinely revealed that he was to be killed and deprived of the empire by one whose name began with PH. For this reason Philippicus, the husband of Maurice's sister, was brought under suspicion of aspiring to the empire. But soon in his sleep, through a vision, Maurice understood that he was to be killed with his wife and children by Phocas. Phocas therefore, made emperor from a soldier, slaughtered Maurice; but Maurice was patient and gave thanks to God, because He was chastising him in this life rather than in the next. Hence at the slaughter of each of his sons before his eyes, he exclaimed: "You are just, O Lord, and Your judgment is right." So Cedrenus, Nicephorus, and from them Baronius, in the year of Christ 602.
Thus, to the city when it was still pagan, the name Roma was given as if prophetically, as a sign that greed was to be destroyed by Christ. For Roma, if explained by each of its letters, means the same as the root of rampant usury and greed, says Alexander Angelus, doctor of theology, in the Summa, part VI, chapter XXXIII. For Christ, overturning and converting the pagan city and world, which gaped after goods and earthly things, taught and inspired contempt for earthly things, and love of heavenly things, and made us citizens of heaven, strangers and sojourners on earth.
Sixth and most truly, the Chaldeans and Hebrews wrote only consonantal letters without points, that is vowels. Hence the Chaldeans did not know which points were to be substituted here, namely whether to read mane, or mina, or meno, or tekel, or tokel, or takal. Again, even though they could substitute some points to each, and thus read them; nevertheless they could not connect them among themselves so as to elicit some convenient and certain meaning, especially because each word had to be explained through a full sentence, as Daniel explains them in verse 26.
Verse 10: The Queen, etc., Entered
10. The Queen, etc., Entered — namely the mother of Belshazzar, or Labonitus, who was a very wise woman, says Herodotus. So Origen, Theodoret and others. Second, Josephus says this queen was the grandmother of the king. Third, others hold that this queen was the wife of the king. For she speaks as a queen, that is as a wife.
You will say: The wife was sitting with the king at the feast in verse 2; how then is she said here to have entered the banquet hall? I answer that the dining rooms of women and men were separated in this feast according to custom. This wife therefore was not sitting with the king, but rose from the women's dining room, and entered into the dining room of the king and the men, in which the hand writing on the wall had appeared.
The first opinion seems truer. For she speaks about the deeds of Daniel under Nebuchadnezzar, as one older and wiser than Belshazzar, and as a witness and one privy to them. For as St. Jerome says: "She knows past events that the king does not know. Let Porphyry therefore blush, who dreams she was Belshazzar's wife; and mocks her for knowing more than her husband." Moreover, mothers of kings, who were queens before them, are usually called queens even when their sons are reigning.
Verse 11: There is a man in the kingdom
11. There is a man in the kingdom — namely Daniel. You will say: Daniel is here introduced as though unknown. But this does not seem true. For he was very well known from the oracles and dreams declared in chapters II, III, IV, and indeed had been appointed by Nebuchadnezzar over all of Babylon. I answer: Already 34 years had passed since that time, during which forgetfulness of those oracles had crept in: especially because when Nebuchadnezzar died, Belshazzar succeeding him promoted other favorites, and removed Daniel from the prefecture of Babylon. Hence Daniel at that time seems to have been discharged from this office. We gather this from verse 16 where the king promises Daniel that he will make him the third prince in the kingdom, if he can read the writing: therefore he was not then a prince. He was however held in honor by the king on account of his wisdom, and on account of the position he had held under Nebuchadnezzar, and was Belshazzar's guest at table and honored
above all his friends, as will be said in chapter XXV, 1: yet he was not present at this last and fatal feast of the king: because he withdrew, foreseeing this hand and its unhappy outcome. And so he arranged his affairs, and gave himself to prayer, so that the calamity which he could not avert, he might at least mitigate: and he prepared himself for the destruction of Babylon, and the coming of the new kings, namely Darius and Cyrus. Daniel was therefore known to Belshazzar, not as a prophet, but as a very prudent man, who under Nebuchadnezzar his father had governed the whole empire. By these things therefore the queen makes him known to the king as a prophet.
Verse 12: Of knotty problems
12. Of knotty problems — of secrets and things difficult to explain: for things that are bound cannot be known or seen through, unless they are loosened and explained. Hence St. Chrysostom in Psalm XCV calls Daniel "a spiritual book of the Scriptures," because for explaining hidden letters and things he did not need the study and reading of books; but he contained them in himself, and read as if in a book.
Verse 17: Let your gifts be for yourself
17. Let your gifts be for yourself. — Thus the Saints despised gifts and all earthly things, to show that they had regard for nothing but God and divine things. Thus Elisha refused to accept the gifts of Naaman, whom he had cured of leprosy, IV Kings V, 16.
Thus a captive Christian woman among the Iberians, when she had cured the Iberian queen of a disease by the power of Christ, being ordered by the king to be rewarded with gifts, replied that she had no need of riches, asserting that she had piety for her riches, and that the king would receive a most ample gift, if he wished to acknowledge the God whom she worshipped. Having said this, she sent back the gifts. So Socrates, book I of the History, chapter XVI.
Thus did St. Hilarion; for Orion, a leading and very wealthy man of the city of Aila, possessed by a legion of demons, after several months was cured by St. Hilarion, not without a miracle: not long after he came with his wife and children to the monastery, as if to render great thanks, bringing gifts. To whom the Saint said: "Have you not read what Gehazi and what Simon suffered? One of them accepted a price, the other offered one, so that the former might sell the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the latter might purchase it?" And when Orion, weeping, said: Take it and give it to the poor; he replied: "You can better distribute your own goods, since you travel through cities and know the poor; I who have left behind my own things, why should I desire another's? For many, the name of the poor is an occasion for greed; but true mercy knows no art. No one distributes better than he who reserves nothing for himself." And to the sad man lying on the ground: "Do not be sad, my son; what I do, I do for myself and for you. For if I accept these things, both I will offend God, and the legion will return to you." Another demoniac cured by Hilarion, with rustic simplicity offering ten pounds of gold, received from him a barley loaf, with the words: "Those who are nourished with such food count gold as dirt." So St. Jerome in the Life of St. Hilarion.
When a certain nobleman in Sicily, swollen with dropsy, on the same day on which he came to Hilarion
had been healed, afterwards offering him endless gifts, he heard from Hilarion the saying of the Savior to His disciples: "Freely you have received, freely give." So St. Jerome in the same place.
When Eusebius the eunuch brought a great sum of gold to Pope Liberius of Rome, who had been ordered by the Emperor Constantius to go into exile, under an invented pretext by the same Emperor's command, Liberius refused, adding: "You have plundered the churches of the world, and now you bring alms to me as one condemned and in need? Go first and become a Christian yourself." So Theodoret, book II of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter XVI.
When St. Martin had freed a certain house from plague by the power of Christ, they offered him a hundred pounds of silver as an honorarium: when he refused to accept them, his disciples, taking it ill, said that their poverty could have been relieved by that money, and that so great a gift should not have been rashly thrown away for the poor. To which he replied: "The Church of Christ clothes and feeds us. Freely you have received, freely give." So Severus Sulpitius, Dialogue III.
Again, Daniel here gave an example to the counselors of princes, to despise gifts. Happy are the princes who have or adopt such counselors. Plato used to say there was no more excellent kind of endowment for princes than the intimacy of those who did not know how to traffic.
Verse 21: His Heart was Made Like the Beasts
21. HIS HEART WAS MADE LIKE THE BEASTS — he had a heart, that is an imagination and appetite, not so much human as bestial; and therefore he fled from men, and desired to dwell with beasts; whence in fact he went out to them and lived among them.
Verse 23: Who has your breath (breathing, vital spirit, and life itself) in His hand
23. Who has your breath (breathing, vital spirit, and life itself) in His hand. — Who therefore would not fear God, in whose hand is the breath of life, the soul, eternity, our salvation and damnation?
Verse 24: Therefore from Him was Sent the Part of the Hand
24. THEREFORE FROM HIM WAS SENT THE PART OF THE HAND — that is the hand with fingers and joints moving and writing, as is said in verse 5.
Note: In Chaldaic it is pasa di ieda, that is a part, or, as Pagninus translates, the palm of the hand, that is, severed from the arm. So Vatablus. Others by "part of the hand" understand a finger, as if on the wall not the whole hand but only a finger appeared writing. Hence the Syriac translates: In that same hour the fingers of a man's hand came forth, and they write opposite the lamp; and the Arabic Alexandrine: In that hour the fingers of hands came forth from the wall opposite the lamp above the cup, the king seeing the palm of a man writing. Yet in the last words it indicates that it was a complete palm and hand, and this seems both more fitting and truer, and the Arabic Antiochene expressly asserts: In that hour, he says, the palm of a hand came forth, and the fingers of a man from the wall, writing opposite the lamp. The same is clearly said in verse 5: "And the king watched the joints of the hand writing."
Note that the Syriac and Arabic say these fingers and hand came forth from the wall of the hall and dining room, in which the king was drinking from the sacred vessels: for from there the punishment comes forth, where the offense is committed. Hence also the Arabic Alexandrine adds, above the cup, etc., writing.
Note: This hand signifies the justice of God, which vigilantly attends and bears down upon every sinner, and cut off Belshazzar from life, strength and kingdom: for it is conscious of all the works of man, judge and avenger, and leaves nothing unpunished, and compensates the delay of punishment by its severity. Symbolically, the hand is synderesis (the spark of conscience), through which God so inscribes in each person's conscience his own sins and punishments, that whether he wills it or not, he sees them. How true in Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar was that saying: "Fortune is made of glass; while it sparkles, it shatters!"
Verse 25: That was Set Down
25. THAT WAS SET DOWN. — In Chaldaic, that was inscribed, and consequently arranged, as the Septuagint translates.
MANE, THECEL, PHARES. — The Syriac translates: Mno, Tekal, and Pharsin. This is the interpretation of the word (discourse) Mno: God has numbered your kingdom, and has delivered it. Tekal, He weighed; you have been weighed in the balance, and have been found wanting; Phras, He divided; your kingdom has been divided (torn), and has been given to Media and Persia. It could also be translated, phras, that is He spread out, and exposed it to the plunder of the enemy. The Vatican codex reads, mno mne, that is He numbered the numbered, which the Hebrews say, by numbering He numbered, that is He fully and plainly numbered your kingdom, so that it is completely numbered, and nothing remains from it to be numbered. Likewise this word mno is always doubled and repeated in the Arabic text. Hence the Arabic Antiochene has it thus: By computation it has been numbered, and by weight it has been weighed, and it has been divided. And the interpretation runs thus: By numbering the number has been computed, because God has comprehended your kingdom and delivered it. And by weight you have been weighed in the balance, and you have been found wanting. It has been divided; your kingdom has been divided, and has been given to Media and Persia.
The Arabic Alexandrine has it thus: God has numbered, numbered your kingdom, weighed, numbered. And the interpretation now is this: God has indeed already taken your numbered kingdom, and has delivered it to others besides you. And as for weighed: because you have been weighed in the balance, and have been found to have less of good. Your kingdom has been divided, and has been given to Media and Persia. Moreover the original Chaldaic writing itself, that is the very words of the writing, are thus: mene mene, tekel, upharsin: He numbered, He numbered (that is, most exactly and most certainly He numbered), He weighed, and the dividers, namely they are, that is the Persians and Medes divide your kingdom. For upharsin, in verse 28, we have peres, that is He divided, meaning God will now certainly divide your kingdom, and this more aptly corresponds to the other two past tenses.
Fernandius notes, vision XXIII, that "He numbered" implies that the days of the king would be brief: for we do not usually count things that are abundant, but those that are few and scarce. Hence that saying: "It is the poor man's task to count his flock."
Second, it can be translated as an imperative: number; weigh, and let the dividers be.
For this hand dictates the sentence of God. Hence it commands saying: Number, weigh, divide. But because the sentence of God is efficacious, and immediately carries out its commands; hence "number" is the same as "He has numbered"; "weigh," that is "He has weighed"; "divide," that is "He has divided."
Note: Upharsin can be translated first, "and the dividers"; second, "and the Persians"; for Pharsin are the Persians, as if to say: The Persians are pressing upon you, O Belshazzar! who with the Medes are dividing your kingdom. So Arias Montanus. Thus the son of Judah, the twin brother of Zerah, was called Perez by the midwife. For as he was being born before Zerah she said: "Why has the breach been made on your account?" Genesis chapter XXXVIII, 29.
Verse 26: God Has Numbered Your Kingdom
26. God has numbered your kingdom (namely the years of your reign and of the Chaldean empire, and by numbering them) has finished it — that is first, He has found them to be completed: for this is the seventieth and last year appointed by God for the Chaldean empire, through Jeremiah, chapter XXIX, 10. Second, "has finished it," that is by His decree He has determined that they should now be completed and ended.
Hear similar portents. A certain judge of Antioch, the day before Julian the Apostate perished, keeping watch near the praetorium, saw a cluster of stars that formed letters expressing this sentence: "Today Julian is killed in Persia." So Zonaras.
Above the lintel of the palace at Adrianople, among other hieroglyphic signs, a verse was found that signified that a certain member of the Palaeologus family would shortly die. Michael, the son of the Emperor Andronicus, died there shortly after. So Gregoras, book VII.
Again, what properly pertains here, when Darius the son of Hystaspes was besieging Babylon and could not conquer it, the mule of Zopyrus gave birth. Whence Zopyrus took the omen that the city would be captured: for he had heard from a certain Babylonian that the city would be conquered when a mule gave birth. He therefore horribly mutilated himself, and thus deserted to the Babylonians, lying that he had been so mutilated by Darius; wherefore, appointed by them as general of the army and guardian of the walls, he delivered the city to Darius. So Herodotus, book III.
When Xerxes was invading Greece with so many forces: "A mare gave birth to a hare, which was easy to conjecture; for it meant that Xerxes would lead his army against Greece with the greatest uproar and ambition, and again, anxious for himself, would run back by flight to the same place. Another prodigy also was displayed to him at Sardis: for a mule gave birth to a mule," says Herodotus, book VII.
Thus Nero, in the play Oedipus, which was the last he recited, broke down at this verse:
"My spouse, my mother, and my father bid me die."
For Oedipus had unknowingly killed his father and married his mother as his wife: thus Nero knowingly had killed his father Claudius, had violated and murdered his mother, and had treated his wife Octavia in unworthy ways. So Suetonius in his Life of Nero.
Similar, but with a happier outcome, is what Plutarch narrates in the Apophthegms of Kings about Dionysius the tyrant, that when magistrates were created by lot through letters, and the letter u fell to him: when someone said in jest μωρολογήσεις, that is, "you will talk foolishly, Dionysius"; on the contrary, he said, μοναρχήσω, "I shall be monarch," and having obtained the magistracy he was immediately elected Emperor by the Syracusans. He was of great spirit, in that he was not offended by that joke, content to interpret the omen of the letter differently, and this paved his way to power.
In a similar manner, but with a better meaning and fortune, St. Wolfgang appeared to St. Henry, Duke of Bavaria, husband of St. Cunegund, and showed him written on the wall, After six. Henry, thinking he would die after six days, then after six weeks, then after six months, and finally after six years, prepared himself for death. But the outcome declared that something happier was portended for him, namely the empire: for after six years he was made emperor. So the Life of St. Henry, chapter II, which our Gretser published in the Saints of Bamberg.
Verse 27: Tekel
27. Tekel. — The Hebrews say sakal, that is he weighed, he pondered: whence the shekel got its name. For the ancients weighed their money by weight, as the shekel had the weight of four drachmas. For the Chaldeans in many Hebrew names substitute tau for shin, that is they put ת for ש: so for sekel they say tekel, for schelas they say telas.
YOU HAVE BEEN WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE, AND HAVE BEEN FOUND WANTING — "wanting" namely in days, more than your age and nature demanded: for before the day of natural death, in the prime of life you shall be snatched away by violent death, say St. Jerome and Maldonatus. But this youthful age is not usually weighed by God in the balance.
I say therefore: It alludes to a coin of lighter weight, which is usually rejected, as if to say: Your works, good and bad, have been weighed in the balance, and, as it is in Chaldaic, in the scales of divine justice and examination, O Belshazzar! and you have been found to have less of uprightness and good works; but very much pride, debauchery, and iniquity; therefore you do not deserve to reign any longer, or to live. Hence the Arabic Alexandrine translates: You have been found to have less of good.
Theodoret notes that there is nothing with God that is not weighed, and therefore God's mercy and gentleness are applied to men with a certain weight and measure. Hence it is said in Wisdom XI, 21: "You have disposed all things in measure, and number, and weight." But properly God weighs deeds, both good and bad, in the balance of His judgment. Hence Job chapter VI, 2: "Would that," he says, "my sins, by which I have deserved wrath, and the calamity which I suffer, were weighed in the balance!" See also Matthew, chapter XXIII, verse 32. Thus Virgil, in book XII of the Aeneid, describes Jupiter judging of the fates and lots of Aeneas and Turnus
thus justly judging:
Jupiter himself holds up two scales with equal balance, And places in them the diverse fates of the two: Whom the struggle condemns, and toward whom death inclines by weight.
Now in this balance of God, virtue alone has weight: for God does not weigh or esteem gold, silver, principalities, prelacies, etc., which are prized among men and are weighed by them; but He weighs only justice, that is virtues and good works: for these produce an eternal weight of glory. Hence in Proverbs XVI, 2, it is said: "The Lord is the weigher of spirits." In this balance St. Job desired to be weighed, saying, chapter XXXI, 6: "Let Him weigh me in a just balance," Hebrew, of justice, "and let God know my simplicity." Therefore Belshazzar, lacking justice and virtues, when weighed in God's balance with all his pomp and glory, was found wanting, that is light and vain. Hence, excluded from kingdom and life, he hears: "Your kingdom has been divided," because he himself through impiety had divided himself from God. Hence Psalm LXI, 10 says: "The sons of men are liars in the balances, that they may deceive from vanity together;" or, as others translate: The sons of men, if placed in balances, are together lighter than vanity, as if to say: Such is the vanity and deception of mortals and worldly men, that if they are placed in one pan, and sheer vanity and emptiness in the other, the latter will undoubtedly outweigh them.
Again, this balance is a symbol of exact fairness and justice: hence among the ancient Romans the image of equity was a certain maiden, holding a spear in her left hand and a just balance in her right, as can be seen on the coins of Galba, Vitellius and Vespasian. For these emperors, to signify that they were devoted to equity, had it engraved on their coins. Likewise before the Romans, the ancient Greeks depicted justice as a maiden, who held a balance in her left hand and a sword in her right, as the avenger of violated justice. Hence Orpheus in the hymns found in Stobaeus thus addresses her: "O most just goddess to mortals, blessed, desirable! who always rejoicing in just men on account of their goodness, venerable, most happy, glorious justice, who with pure mind always distributes what is due to each, and completely crushes all those who do not submit to your balance, but beyond it insatiably incline with heavy scales. This is what the Wise Man says, Proverbs XVI, 11: Weight and balance are judgments of the Lord." And Isaiah chapter XXVIII, 17: "I will set judgment in weight, and justice in measure." And chapter XXVII, 8: "In measure against measure, when it has been cast away, you shall judge it."
God therefore has a most just and faithful balance, in which He weighed the life and merits of Belshazzar, and will weigh those of all of us. Hence Abbot George, in Sophronius's Spiritual Meadow: "Woe to us," he says, "brethren! because we have no compunction, but live in negligence, while the wrath of God seizes us, and we are thrust in to be judged; and the following day fire appeared in the sky," the sign and threat of this balance.
Thus Peter the Tax-collector, sick in bed, saw in his dreams all his deeds being weighed in a balance by Moors and Candidates; and when the Moors placed in one pan all his sins which he had committed from youth and which he had forgotten; the Candidates, finding nothing else, placed in the other pan one loaf of bread which he had indignantly given to a poor man: and so equality was made; and then they said to him: "Go and add to this bread; for truly these Ethiopians will seize you." Hence upon waking he changed his life, and from a miser he became the greatest almsgiver, so that he did not even spare his own body. So it is found in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver written by Leontius.
Thus the merits of the Emperor St. Henry, who was the husband of St. Cunegund and lived celibately with her, after his death were weighed in a balance between angels and demons, and as the pans alternately rose and fell with his merits and demerits, St. Lawrence came and settled the dispute. For the house received from Henry and donated to his church, he placed in the other pan of his merits: whereby it happened that that pan, made heavier, lifted the other one into the air and outweighed it, and in this way the angels emerged victorious, and carried away Henry's soul, snatched from the demons, into their fellowship. This matter is narrated at length in the Life of St. Henry, chapter XXVIII.
But hear the merits of Charlemagne weighed in the balance. The matter is narrated by John Turpin, Archbishop of Rheims, in the Life of Charlemagne, chapter XXXII: "When," he says, "at Vienne in a church before the altar, one day caught up in an ecstasy while intent on prayers, I perceived innumerable hosts of dark soldiers passing before me and heading toward Lorraine. When they had all passed by, I noticed one of them resembling an Ethiopian, following the others behind at a slow pace. To whom I said: Where are you heading? To Aachen, he said, we are heading to the death of Charlemagne, to seize his spirit and drag it to the underworld. To whom I said: I adjure you by the name of the Lord our God Jesus Christ, that when you have completed the journey of your purpose, you do not refuse to return to me. Then after a short delay, barely having completed a psalm, they returned to me in the same order, and I said to the last one, to whom I had previously spoken: What have you done? And the demon said: The headless Gallicanus suspended so many and such great stones and timbers of his basilicas in the balance, that his good deeds weighed more than his evil ones, and therefore he took his soul away from us. And, having said these things, the demon vanished; and so I understood that on that same day Charlemagne had departed from this light, and by the aid of Blessed James, whose many churches he had built, had been worthily conveyed to the heavenly kingdoms."
He then adds a confirmation of the vision: "Fifteen days after his death, I learned through a messenger that from the very time when he had departed from Spain until the day of his death, he had been continually ill, and on the same day and hour on which I had seen the vision, namely the fifth day before the Kalends of February, in the year of the Lord 814, he had departed from this life, and had been honorably buried at Aachen in the round basilica of Blessed Mary, which he himself had built." So this author, whose credibility is his own; for he inscribes himself as Turpin, Archbishop of Rheims, although it is established that he died before Charlemagne. Wherefore Papyrius Massonus thinks this booklet was written by an idle man in favor of the youth shortly after Charles the Bald: yet its version is preserved in the Royal Library in France. Hence also Cardinal Baronius, in the year of Christ 814, treating of the death of Charlemagne, and Antonius Possevinus in the Bibliotheca, under the name Turpin, and others, call it fabulous, and even charge it with falsehood.
Verse 28: Your Kingdom has been Divided
28. YOUR KINGDOM HAS BEEN DIVIDED — right now, namely this very night: your kingdom, separated and taken from you, will be divided between the Medes and Persians. Hear this, you drunkards, hear this, you tipplers, you who sit at your tables, rejoice, laugh, sing, and drink; all things are happy for you, all things pleasant: but you do not see the extended hand of God over you. "Mane," God has numbered your life, and will shortly complete it, perhaps in this hour, perhaps in this your drunkenness. God from eternity has decreed for you the day and hour of death: He said: In this hour, in this moment you will die: perhaps this very hour is your fateful one. "Tekel," you have been weighed in the balance, and have been found to have less sobriety, less reason, less virtue; but much debauchery, much madness, much of vices. "Phares," your kingdom has been divided, you yourself have been divided; your body will be given to worms to devour, your soul to demons: your goods will be seized either by perverse heirs, or greedy executors, or unjust superiors. See for what purpose you have fattened your body; see for what purpose with so much labor you have heaped up riches by fair means and foul.
Tropologically, these three things, says Pererius, are terrible for sinners: first, "mane," namely the number of life, that is death; second, "tekel," that is judgment; third, "phares," that is hell, by which we are eternally divided and separated from God, from heaven, from the Saints and from eternal life.
These three things hang over every person's neck: meanwhile blind men feast, indulge in luxury, dance, and revel; and they do not fear this sword pressing upon their head, because they do not see it.
Gregory of Tours narrates, book V of the History of the Franks, at the end, that St. Salvius said to him: "Do you see above this roof what I see?" to which I said: "I see the tile which the king recently ordered to be placed." But he, drawing deep sighs, said: "I see the unsheathed sword of divine wrath hanging over this house." Nor did the vision deceive him; for after twenty-two days the sons of the king, whom we wrote above had died, passed away.
Cicero relates, in Tusculan Disputations V, that Dionysius the tyrant, when Damocles, his flatterer, often spoke of his happy fortune, showed him how great a terror always hangs over kings and tyrants, even if they seem most happy, in this way: he ordered the man to be placed on a golden couch with the most beautiful coverings, and adorned several sideboards with engraved silver and gold: then he ordered chosen boys of exceptional beauty to stand at the table, and to wait upon him at his nod: there were ointments, garlands, perfumes were burned, the tables were piled with the most exquisite delicacies. Damocles thought himself fortunate. In the midst of this display, he ordered a gleaming sword, hung from the ceiling by a horsehair, to be lowered, so as to hang over the neck of that happy man. Then he began to tremble, and was entirely intent on the sword: now he no longer looked at the beautiful servants, nor at the artfully wrought silver, nor did he reach his hand to the table; now the very garlands were slipping off. At last he begged the tyrant to be allowed to leave, because he no longer wished to be happy. Let all pleasure-seekers apply this to themselves, and when they are in the midst of banquets and luxuries, let them gaze upon the sword of divine justice and hell hanging over them: and so let them learn to spurn and restrain harmful pleasures.
Finally, from the fact that Daniel interpreted "mane, tekel, phares" in such a way as to expound each word through separate sentences, the ancient Rabbis seem to have invented the cabalistic method of interpreting and writing, by which they explain not only complete sentences of Sacred Scripture, but also syllables, and weigh each individual letter separately, as if in each there lay some mystery; so that the cabala gradually passed into superstition and odium. Again, the method of writing by rasce tebot, that is by the initial letters of words, so that for example bbe means the same as beresent bara elohim, that is "in the beginning God created." Hence our Raderus in book XIV of Martial, epigram 202, and others, believe that the Romans received from the Hebrews this same method of writing by abbreviations (by which notaries in tribunals used to write down every statement of judges and martyrs): therefore it was not Cicero, nor Maecenas, as some claim, but long before them the Hebrews were the inventors of this style of writing.
Verse 29: Daniel was Clothed with Purple
29. DANIEL WAS CLOTHED WITH PURPLE. — Purple and a golden chain were formerly the insignia of kings, as is clear from the books of Maccabees. The king honored Daniel so greatly, although he was the bearer of bad tidings, either because he thought this calamity was remote and was to be long deferred; or so that through Daniel he might appease God and avert the calamity. So St. Jerome.
THAT HE SHOULD HAVE POWER AS THE THIRD IN THE KINGDOM. — Namely, first in the kingdom was the king, second the queen, third Daniel, says Maldonatus. Otherwise St. Jerome, as if to say: He made Daniel a tristate, or triumvir, namely to be one of three princes of the kingdom: for thus shortly after, Darius the Mede placed three over the whole kingdom, as is clear from chapter VI, 2.
Verse 30: That Same Night
30. THAT SAME NIGHT. — Not of the same year, but of the following, says Alcazar from Guevara in Apocalypse XVI, verse 12, note 2. For on the same night each year the Chaldeans used to hold a feast, keeping vigil for one of their gods; such as Livy, book XXIII, recalls the Campanians celebrated, when Gracchus invaded them through all the gates at once. But the context itself indicates that Babylon was captured immediately on the same night of the same year. For "that same night" should be referred to "Mane, Tekel, Phares," as if to say: On that same night of the same feast, when the king saw the avenging hand writing the sentence of death against him, he was slain. For it is not usual for a sentence, especially one so efficacious and miraculous, to be deferred for a year: nor is it probable that Cyrus with such great forces besieged Babylon for a whole year and more. Nor does it stand in the way that "it was proclaimed of him (Daniel) that he should have power as the third in the kingdom" (of Belshazzar). For this was proclaimed and announced there among the magnates, a thousand of whom were present at the feast, on that same night by the king's command. For exemplary chastisements of God, especially regarding sacrilegious persons (such as this was), tend to be sudden and unexpected.
BELSHAZZAR WAS SLAIN — when Babylon was captured by Cyrus. It is therefore false what Josephus writes from Berosus, book I Against Apion, that Cyrus, after capturing Babylon, received King Belshazzar (whom he calls Nabonnedus) kindly, and assigned Carmania to him as a dwelling place.
Xenophon in book VII, and Herodotus in book I, and from them Rupert here in chapter XVIII, St. Thomas, Opusculum On the Government of Princes, book III, chapter VII, Pererius here, Guevara on Habakkuk, chapter II, 7, Alcazar, Apocalypse chapter XVI, 12, and interpreters generally, relate that Cyrus, besieging Babylon, dug many trenches around it, and on the day when he knew the Babylonians would hold a festival and get drunk, suddenly by night, while the Chaldeans were carousing and reveling, he diverted the Euphrates, which flows through Babylon, into those trenches, and thus the Persians entered the city through the now dry bed of the Euphrates. The Babylonians did not guard against this, thinking it was impossible. For, as Xenophon says, "the breadth of the Euphrates is more than two stadia, and its depth so great that not even two men standing one upon the other would rise above the water." On the other hand, in Babylon there was an innumerable multitude of defenders: and the walls themselves extended fifty cubits in breadth and two hundred in height. Seeing therefore that the city was impregnable by land, Cyrus attacked it through the river on a feast day and banquet day.
Therefore Isaiah, foreseeing and mocking the drinking Chaldeans, chapter XXI, verse 5, says: "Set the table, watch from the watchtower those eating and drinking, arise, O princes, seize the shield" — the enemy is at hand, Cyrus is entering the city. Xenophon adds that there were two Babylonian deserters with Cyrus, Gadatas and Gobryas, under whose guidance Cyrus's soldiers were led into the royal palace by night, and having killed everyone they encountered, sparing only those who spoke Syriac (the Jews), and having first slaughtered the king's guards, they then killed the king himself. Thus fell that famous Babylon: we were Trojans, Ilium existed, and the great glory of the Teucrians.
Babylon was captured in the first year of the monarchy of Cyrus, which was the year of the world 3417. In that year therefore Belshazzar made this feast, saw the hand writing, was killed, etc. Moreover Cyrus, on account of this prophecy of Daniel about himself, and another preceding one from Isaiah, chapter XXV, 1, published about him 200 years before, says Josephus, freed the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, I Ezra 1, 1.
Note: In this destruction of the city Daniel was preserved, both by the providence of God, and because his virtue and wisdom were already famous everywhere, as is clear from Ezekiel chapter XXVIII, 3 (just as M. Marcellus in the conquest of Syracuse ordered that Archimedes, the most noble mathematician, be preserved); and because immediately his prophecy about the death of Belshazzar became widely known, and there is no doubt that Darius and Cyrus understood it at once: therefore they ordered him to be preserved as their own prophet, just as Nebuzaradan ordered Jeremiah to be preserved, chapter XL, because he had predicted the destruction of the Jews by the Chaldeans.
Finally Aristotle in the Politics, book III, chapter 11, says thus: "When Babylon had been captured by the enemy, they say that a certain part of the city on the third day had not yet perceived anything." The same happened to Cairo, or Memphis, in the preceding century, when it was conquered by Selim, king of the Turks: indeed Selim did not even dare to enter it, although it had been captured.
See here how great a sin sacrilege is, and how God punishes the profaners of sacred things dedicated to His worship: for on account of this He punished Belshazzar here with the destruction of his life, city and monarchy.
Therefore piously and holily Pope St. Stephen (who lived in the time of St. Cyprian, and under Valerian suffered a glorious martyrdom in the year of the Lord 260) decreed that sacred vessels and vestments should only be handled by consecrated persons, and confirms this with this example of Belshazzar. For he so decrees, De Consecratione, distinction I, chapter Vestimenta: "The vestments of the Church, in which the Lord is served, must be both sacred and dignified; they must not be used for any other purposes than ecclesiastical and God-worthy offices; nor must they be touched or offered by any others than consecrated persons; lest the vengeance that struck King Belshazzar come upon those who transgress in this matter, and cause them to fall to the lowest depths."
Allegorically, Rupert in Daniel chapter IX teaches that by the destruction of Babylon is signified the destruction of the entire city of the devil, which will come on the day of judgment, concerning which it is said in Apocalypse XVIII: "Babylon the great has fallen, has fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, etc.: because all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her."
Verse 31: And Darius the Mede Succeeded to the Kingdom
31. AND DARIUS THE MEDE SUCCEEDED TO THE KINGDOM. — "Darius," namely together with Cyrus his nephew. So all the Greek historians; Daniel however here, and Isaiah, chapter XIII, 17, and Jeremiah, chapter LI, 11, attribute it to Darius alone and the Medes: because Darius was more worthy, and was the uncle of Cyrus, and at that time the Medes were powerful: but Cyrus under him ruled the Persians, being strong in age, spirit and forces. So St. Jerome. The Masoretes, ignorant of pagan histories, incorrectly pointed Darius as Dariaves, and Cyrus as Cores. Darius in Persian means the same as restrainer, says Herodotus, book VI.
You ask, who was this Darius the Mede? First, Theodoret answers that he was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar through his daughter. Second, Joannes Annius and Joannes Lucidus following their Megasthenes, think he was Darius Hystaspes. Third, others say he was Cyrus. Fourth, Scaliger, book VI of the Emendation of Times, thinks he was Nabonitus, who, he says, was substituted by the common consent of the princes for Labosordach, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar through his daughter Nitocris. For he holds that this Labosordach was Belshazzar, and that after he was killed, Nabonitus was elected and made king by the people, and that he was Darius the Mede, who reigned 17 years, until Cyrus stripped him of the kingdom of Babylon and banished him to Carmania. But that Darius the Mede together with Cyrus conquered Babylon, and killed Belshazzar, and consequently that the Medes and Persians occupied the Babylonian empire not by succession, nor by election, but by force simultaneously, Daniel teaches here in verse 28: "Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." And verse 30: "That same night Belshazzar was slain," namely by the Medes and Persians mentioned just before. Hence he immediately adds: "And Darius the Mede succeeded to the kingdom." Isaiah teaches the same, chapters XIII and XXI, 2: "Go up," he says, "O Elam; besiege (Babylon), O Mede." And verse 7: "And he saw a chariot of two horsemen, a rider on an ass, and a rider on a camel," namely Cyrus king of the Persians, and Darius king of the Medes. And verse 9: "Behold, there comes a man riding in a chariot of horsemen (namely Cyrus the Medo-Persian), and he answered and said: Babylon has fallen, has fallen." Jeremiah teaches the same in chapter LI, and the interpreters generally.
Fifth, Eusebius thinks he was Astyages, the grandfather of Cyrus: chapter XIII, last verse, favors this opinion. But I say that this Darius was the son of Astyages: for besides his daughter Mandane, who was the mother of Cyrus, Astyages also had a son, although Herodotus and others deny it (perhaps because he did not have him from the queen, but from a secondary wife; or because, as Torniellius would have it, he was his adopted, not natural son); yet Xenophon teaches the same thing in the Cyropædia, who calls this son Cyaxares, and says he was the last king of the Medes. This man indeed seems to be Darius the Mede, called by Xenophon Cyaxares; by the Septuagint Artaxerxes. So Torniellius in the Chronology, Pererius, Maldonatus and others everywhere, following St. Jerome and Josephus, book XI of the Antiquities, chapter XII. Consequently it is truer, what Xenophon says, that Astyages died a natural death while Cyrus was still a boy, than what Herodotus asserts, that he was defeated by Cyrus and expelled from the kingdom. For from this passage it is clear that Cyrus was very closely connected with his uncle Darius, and consequently with the family of Astyages.
Moreover Darius, or as Ctesias has it, Azgraios, which approaches more closely to the Persian nomenclature, means the same as restrainer, one who suppresses and restrains others; just as Xerxes means the same as warrior: Artaxerxes, great warrior, says Herodotus book VI, and from him Scaliger, book VI.
BEING SIXTY-TWO YEARS OLD. — The Hebrews relate in Seder Olam, that is in the Chronology of the World, and from them Genebrardus in the Chronology, that this Darius was born in the same year that Nebuchadnezzar laid waste Jerusalem and the temple, so that he might be the avenger and vindicator of this crime, and overturn Babylon with its monarchy. This should be understood of the year when Nebuchadnezzar began to besiege Jerusalem, which was the 16th year of his reign; for he besieged it for two years, and finally conquered it in the 18th year of his reign, as is clear from Jeremiah chapter LII, 4 and 29. That this is so is clear. For the 62nd year of Darius was likewise the 1st of Cyrus, in which the Babylonian captivity was dissolved, and therefore the same year was the 70th and last of the captivity. Moreover these 70 years begin from the 8th year of Nebuchadnezzar, in which he killed Jehoiakim and substituted his son Jehoiachin, whom after three months he carried away to Babylon, as I said on Jeremiah chapters XXV and XXIX. Now from the 8th year of Nebuchadnezzar to his 16th, when Darius was born, eight years intervene, which add to the 62 of Darius, and you will have precisely the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity.
Where note how the eye of divine Providence is exalted and watchful, so that it immediately creates and appoints an executioner for the offender. Thus chronologists have noted that on the same day that Pelagius the heresiarch was born in England, St. Augustine was born in Africa, whom God was preparing as an antagonist and conqueror of Pelagius. Likewise in the same year 1521, when Luther publicly professed heresy, our Holy Father Ignatius, wounded at Pamplona, bid farewell to the world and began his sacred warfare, whom God was appointing as the leader of the Society of Jesus to fight against the Lutherans. So Ribadeneira in his Life, XII, XVIII.