Verses 30-31
30, 31. For the facts connected with the capture of Babylon see Introduction, III, 4.
Took Rather, “received” (R.V.). For conjectures concerning Darius the Mede see Introduction, III, 3, (5), and for “Medes and Persians” notes Daniel 2:39-42, and Daniel 7:5.
This account has powerfully influenced both art and literature. While the weighing of the heart of the dead forms one of the most beautiful chapters in the Book of the Dead, and while Homer, and Vergil, and AEschylus elaborate this thought, there need be no doubt that it was from Belshazzar’s feast and not from Egypt or Greece that the Hebrew hymn came which is even yet sung on the Day of Atonement in the Jewish synagogue:
O be Thy mercy in the balance laid,
To hold thy servant’s sins more lightly weighed,
When, his confession penitently made,
He answers for his guilt before the king.
In mediaeval Christian architecture Michael is represented bearing a pair of scales in one hand and a sword in the other.
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