Daniel 5:10

"Now the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house: the queen spake and said, O king, live forever; let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed. There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the holy gods, were found in him; and the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made him master of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and soothesayers; forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of dark sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation."

The appearance of the queen and her addressing the king without being solicited to do so attest, "...The remarkable accuracy of this chapter. In Babylonia, the queen-mother held the highest rank in the royal house."[22] The queen who appeared in this scene could not have been the king's wife, for the "wives and concubines" of the revelers were already present. Barnes gives us the name of this queen. "She was Nitocris and could not fail to have been well acquainted with the character and services of Daniel."[23] This grand lady might well have been a believer in the true God; and, as Jeffery stated, "Although gods is used in the plural form both in this place (Daniel 5:11), and in Daniel 4:8, the sense is singular."[24] One of the primary words for God in the Old Testament is [~'Elohiym], and the term is plural; but as in the case here, the meaning is singular.

We have already noted that "father" in these passages might mean any one of a number of things. Culver believed that in this passage it only meant "Father in a legal sense,"[25] basing his view upon the probable fact of Belshazzar's having been "adopted" into the ruling dynasty. Other scholars appear to be certain that Belshazzar was actually a blood descendant of Nebuchadnezzar through Evil-Merodach, and therefore he was really the grandson of the famous Nebuchadnezzar. Until more is certainly known of the history of that whole period, it is a waste of time to wade through all of the guesses and theories.