And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.
Parallel translations
- WEB but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not glorified.
- KJV But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, 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:
- BSB Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.
- NASB but you have risen up against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives, and your concubines have been drinking wine out of them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, nor hear, nor understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and all your ways, you have not glorified.
- NLT For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Belshazzar exalted himself against the Lord, defiling the temple vessels and praising lifeless idols, while ignoring the God who holds his life. His sin is named as defiant idolatry and ingratitude.
Overview
Daniel lays out the full indictment: the king dishonored the holy vessels, worshiped gods that cannot see or hear, and failed to glorify the God in whose hand is his very breath. This contrast between dead idols and the living God lies at the heart of the chapter's judgment. To refuse God His rightful honor, when one's every breath depends on Him, is the height of folly and rebellion.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 38
- Job 12:10in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
- Dan 4:37Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those who walk in pride he is able to abase.
- Isa 37:23Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
- Isa 2:12For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and haughty, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:
- Jer 10:23Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
- Job 31:4Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?
- Jer 50:29“Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp against her all around. Let none of it escape. Recompense her according to her work. According to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.
- Ps 115:4–8Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
- Prov 20:24A man’s steps are from Yahweh; how then can man understand his way?
- Hab 2:18–19“What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?
- 2 Kgs 14:10You have indeed struck Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Enjoy the glory of it, and stay at home; for why should you meddle to your harm, that you fall, even you, and Judah with you?’”
- Ps 139:3You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
- Rom 1:21–23Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.
- Heb 4:13There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
- Dan 5:2–4Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink from them.
- Isa 37:19and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.
- Gen 2:7Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
- Judg 16:23The lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.”
- Ps 135:15–17The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
- 1 Tim 3:6not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.
- Hab 2:4Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.
- Isa 46:6–7Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down — yes, they worship.
- Isa 33:10“Now I will arise,” says Yahweh; “Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted.
- Ezek 28:17Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may see you.
- Ezek 28:5by your great wisdom and by your traffic you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches —
- Ps 146:4His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish.
- 1 Cor 8:4Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
- Rev 13:5–6A mouth speaking great things and blasphemy was given to him. Authority to make war for forty-two months was given to him.
- Ezek 31:10Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;
- Acts 17:25neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.
- 1 Sam 5:1–9Now the Philistines had taken God’s ark, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
- Ps 104:29You hide your face: they are troubled; you take away their breath: they die, and return to the dust.
- Acts 17:28–29‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
- Ezek 28:2Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the middle of the seas; yet you are man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of God —
- Ps 115:16The heavens are the heavens of Yahweh; but the earth has he given to the children of men.
- Isa 42:5Thus says God Yahweh, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it.
- Gen 14:19He blessed him, and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth:
- Job 34:14–15If he set his heart on himself, If he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath,
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Christ at the center
Daniel sees the stone cut without hands that shatters the kingdoms, and 'one like a son of man' given everlasting dominion — titles and visions Jesus claims as his own.
How Daniel 5:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.
But hast lifted upרוּםthyself againstעַלthe Lordמָרֵאof heavenשָׁמַיִןand they have broughtאָתָהthe vesselsמָאןof his houseבַּיִתbeforeקֳדָםthee, and thouאַנְתָּהand thy lordsרַבְרְבָןthy wivesשֵׁגָלand thy concubinesלְחֵנָהhave drunkשְׁתָהwineחֲמַרin them; and thou hast praisedשְׁבַחthe godsאֱלָהּof silverכְּסַףand goldדְּהַבof brassנְחָשׁironפַּרְזֶלwoodאָעand stoneאֶבֶןwhich seeחֲזָאnotלָאnorלָאhearשְׁמַעnorלָאknowיְדַעand the Godאֱלָהּin whose handיַדthy breathנִשְׁמָאis, and whose are allכֹּלthy waysאֹרַחhast thou notלָאglorifiedהֲדַר