Home › Glossary › Letter B

Belshazzar

Biblical
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Last king of Babylon, whose feast was interrupted by a divine hand writing his doom.

Detailed Definition
Belshazzar’s story (Daniel 5) warns against arrogance and sacrilege. In poetry, he symbolizes the sudden collapse of power, the legibility of divine judgment, and the fragility of empire, often evoked in meditations on hubris and revelation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Belshazzar—king who saw the writing on the wall—fuels apocalyptic poetry: “Belshazzar’s feast ended in trembling, for the hand wrote MENE”; A modern poem: “Our banquets are Belshazzar’s—we toast while the walls crack”; In a sonnet on hubris: “Gold goblets cannot hold back the Mede, nor pride the judgment of God”; Dramatic monologue: “I was Belshazzar—I knew the vessels were holy, yet I drank.”
Additional Notes
Belshazzar, last king of Babylon (Daniel 5), hosts a blasphemous feast using temple vessels, leading to the famous “writing on the wall” (MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN). His story is a classic tale of hubris and divine judgment. In poetry, Belshazzar symbolizes the fragility of empire, the suddenness of reckoning, and the uncanny intrusion of the sacred into profane revelry.
Also Known As
Bel-shazzar
Skip to main content