The principal image in the text is taken from a custom, which hath prevailed amongst all nations, of regulating commercial intercourse, by the test of the balance, or of determining the value or deficiency of any commodity, by certain standard weights. In allusion to this mode, the adjustment of which formed a part of that sacred code of juridical ceremonies, which God gave to the Jewish legislator; the king of Babylon is represented as put into the balance. His kingdom, and the glory thereof, his crown and sceptre, his wealth, dominion, and titles, are put in with him. These would be thought objects of prodigious appreciation in the eyes of the world, and would weigh immensely heavy in the false balance of human estimation; as they probably did, in the opinion of Belshazzar and his abandoned court. But it is not a human hand that holds the balance, or the eye of a superficial mortal that is to watch its preponderation. No; the beam is suspended from God’s hand, and the balance is to be regulated by ONE, in whose sight “a false balance is an abomination.” Prov. xi. 1. Belshazzar is weighed by Him, who can neither err nor be deceived. And the result of the scrutiny is, that he is found wanting. His moral character is defective, weighs nothing. The glory of an _empire_ cannot make up for what is wanting in the _man_. In God’s account, an act of truth or mercy outweighs a kingdom; and, without holiness, earthly dignities are as the small dust of the balance, and all sublunary excellence lighter than vanity itself. Belshazzar’s whole empire is no counter-balance against Belshazzar’s iniquities. And, while a court or pulpit-flatterer pronounces bliss and glory in the _king_, God makes no other account of his royalty, than to damn it in the _sinner_ with the greater emphasis.