Daniel 5:17

"Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; nevertheless I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. O thou king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty: and because of the greatness that he gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he raised up, and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: and he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts; and his dwelling was with the wild asses; he was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; until he knew that the Most High God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and setteth up over it whomsoever he will. And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart, though thou knewest all this, 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 from 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 his hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified. Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was inscribed."

DANIEL'S ADMONITION TO THE KING

Daniel's refusal of the king's gifts has been interpreted in radically different manners. Some have seen it as an affirmation by Daniel that he would interpret the writing without regard to gifts; and others have declared that, "Daniel's speech to the king here was insulting, and if he had made such a speech he surely would have been punished."[26] We reject such a view, and also the same author's contention that the majority of this passage in Daniel 5:17-24 is an interpolation, basing that notion on the absence of most of this from the Septuagint. It is possible, however, that this abbreviated account may have lost some of its color by the omission of the formalities and stereotyped salutations that usually marked such court appearances. Regarding the gifts, Daniel later accepted them in spite of the disclaimer that stands here. Barnes' view of this passage appears to be the best. He said, "Daniel (in refusing the gifts) meant merely that, 'I do not act from hope of reward,' intimating that what he did would be done from a higher motive than a desire for reward or office."[27]