Reading for June 16th

Read Daniel 5.13-31
In verses 13-29 Daniel chides Belshazzar for his arrogance, unlike "his father"
Nebuchadnezzar, prior to interpreting the writing.
The words are Aramaic nouns for units of weight: "mene," a mina; "tequel,"
a shekel; parsin," a half mina.
Daniel reads them as verbs: "menah," to number; "teqal," to weigh; and "peras," to divide.
The root "prs" also serves as the base for the name Persia.
In verse 30 Nabonidus fled Babylon at the approach of the Persian army.
There is no evidence that Belshazzar was killed.
In verse 31 Darius the Mede is not historical.
Babylon submitted to Cyrus of Persia in 539.
A Persian military commander and relative of the royal family, Darius,
took the throne when Cyrus's son Cambyses was assassinated in 522 BCE.
The Medes were part of the Persian empire, and various prophecies asserted
that Babylon would fall to them (Isa 13.17-22; 21.1-10; Jer 51.11, 28).
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