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creased. "While in 1391 they paid 10,500 maravedis in taxes, in 1474 only 1,500 maravedis were paid by

the community of Belorado together with the Jews of Ochacastro, Bergafio, Villaharte, Quintanar, Villa de Pozo, Val de San Vicente, San Garcia, and Estordeche. After the expulsion in 1492 the houses of the Jews were sold at low prices, and the former Jewry received the name "Barrio Nuevo," which it still

bears.

Bibliography de Espafia,



li.

et acq.

J. Amador de los Kios, Historia de los Jiulios 539, lii. 591; Bolctin Acad. Hist. xxix. 338

'

M. K.

g.

BELOVAR: Town

in

Croatia, Austria.

The

Jewish community of Belovar was founded about 1877, when some fifty Jewish families settled there. While in Belovar, Moritz Grunwald published there the " Judisch-LiterarischesCentralblatt." The community now (1902) numbers about 300 families, and is the seat of a district rabbinate, the present in-

cumbent being e.

S.

D. Tauber.

c.

See Croatia. A. P.— G.

—

BELSHAZZAR. Biblical Data: King of Babylon mentioned in Dan. v. and viii. as the son of Nebuchadnezzar and as the last king before the The Greek advent of the Medes and Persians. form Ba^rafop is used both for the Hebrew " Belshasar," or less accurately, "IXKW3 (ib. vii. 1), and for

Belmonte

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

"Belteshazzar" (-|SNB>t^3, Dan.

i.

7).

The

Baruch i. 11 as "Balthasar" There can be no doubt, how(R. V. " Baltasar "). ever, that the allusions to this personage in Baruch and elsewhere in extracanonical literature are all based on the data given by Dan. v. and viii. It is stated in Dan. v. that Belshazzar gave a banquet to the lords and ladies of his court, at which the sacred vessels of the Jerusalem Temple, which had been brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar at the time of the Judean Belshazzar's captivity in 586 B.C.,. were profaned In conseFestival, by the ribald company. quence of this, during the turmoil of the festivities, a hand was seen writing on the wall of the chamber a mysterious sentence which defied

name appears

also in

attempts at interpretation until the Hebrew sage Daniel was called in. He read and translated the unknown words, which proved to be a divine menace against the dissolute Belshazzar, whose kingdom was to be divided between the Medes and Persians. In the last verse we are told that Belshazzar was passed slain in that same night, and that his power all

to Darius the Mede. j. jr.

I-

M. P.

In Rabbinical Literature The chronology in the Talof the three Babylonian kings is given mud as follows: Nebuchadnezzar reigned forty-five Belshazzar years, Evil-merodach twenty-three, and years, being two for Babylonia of monarch was on the fatal killed at the beginning of the third year

fall of Babylon (Meg. lift). Midrash to references in the Talmud and the oppression Belshazzar all emphasize his tyrannous in the passages Several subjects. Jewish of his to him Prophets are interpreted as though referring

night of the

The

and did 19),

his predecessors. flee

In the passage,

"As

if

a

man

and a bear met him " (Amos v. represents Nebuchadnezzar, and the

from a

the lion

Belshazzar

lion,

bear, equally ferocious if not equally courageous, is Belshazzar (Esther R., Introduction). The three

Babylonian kings are often mentioned together as forming a succession of impious and tyrannous monarchs who oppressed Israel and were therefore foredoomed to disgrace and destruction. The verse in

And I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant and son and grandchild, saith the Lord," is applied to the trio. "Name" refers to Isa. xiv. 22, "

Nebuchadnezzar, "remnant" to Evil-merodach, "son" is Belshazzar, and "grandchild" Vashti (ib.). The command given to Abraham to cut in pieces three heifers as a part of the covenant established between him and his God, is thus elucidated, " And he said unto him, take unto me three heifers " (Gen. This xv. 9 [A. V. "a heifer of three years old"]). symbolizes Babylonia, which gave rise to three kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-merodach, and Belshazzar, whose doom is prefigured by this act of "cutting to pieces" (Gen. R. xliv.). Belshazzar's feast, in the course of which the sacred vessels of the Temple in Jerusalem were put to sacrilegious use (Dan. v.), is traced by the Rabbis He well knew to his miscalculation in chronology. that the period of Jewish exile in Babylonia, according to Jeremiah's prophecy, was not to exceed seventy years (Jer. xxix. 10). Belshazzar's startingpoint was the accession of Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned forty-five years. To this he added the reign of Evil-merodach, which, according to

continued for twenty-three years, and his

tradition,

own

reign

" Jeremiah two years, making in all seventy. must be wrong," argued Belshazzar, "for the limit has been reached, and since the Jews have not yet

of

returned to their land, they probably will not return any more." Emboldened by this erroneous calculation, he made impious use of the sacred vessels at the royal feast, where the sound of revelry mingled with hymns to the heathen gods. The miraculous handwriting on the wall, the fall of Babylon, and the king's violent death on that fatal night soon Ahasuerus also erred in his calculation followed. as to the period of the Babylonian exile, though his starting-point is shifted to a later date than that of The Rabbis assert that the true basis Belshazzar. for this reckoning is the destruction of Jerusalem. For the famous prophecy of Jeremiah is properly understood by Daniel when he says (Dan. ix. 2), "In the first year of his [Darius'] reign, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in " the desolations of Jerusalem (Meg. 11* et seq.). The Midrash enters into the details of Belshazzar's death. It is stated that Cyrus and Darius were employed as doorkeepers of the royal palace. Belshazzar, being greatly alarmed at the mysterious handwriting on the wall, and apprehending that some one in disguise might enter the palace with

intent, ordered his doorkeepers to behead every one who attempted to force an entrance that night, even though such person should claim to be

murderous