The Fall of Babylon

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1 The king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand.  2 While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.  3 Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.  4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

5 the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on 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 changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other. 

22 “But you, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. 23 And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. 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. 24 Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written.

25 “And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. 

This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; 27 TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; 28 PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”

30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. 31 And Darius the Mede received the kingdom.

Ezekiel 45:12 tells us "the shekel shall be twenty gerahs."

Literally, his number was up. It had been 2520 weeks to the day since his grandfather, King Nebuchadnezzar, had destroyed the city Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple. According to God’s calendar, the Babylonian Kingdom was coming to an end that very night.

Belshazzar was mocking the God of Israel that night by celebrating with the gold and silver implements from the Temple in Jerusalem. 

God had been keeping a very precise measurement of time since Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed and robbed the Temple 2520 weeks ago.  A precise period of 49 (7 x 7), 360-day years, totaling 17,640 days.

Psalm 75:2

At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity.