Since Daniel had said that he would not accept gifts from King Belshazzar for interpreting the handwriting on the wall, why was he found wearing the clothing and necklace afterward?

Just before the Medes and the Persians overthrew Babylon, King Belshazzar and his court were in the midst of a feast. During the feast, he took the vessels that were from Jehovah’s temple and used these for drinking wine, praising the Babylonian gods. But the party was abruptly interrupted when a superhuman hand wrote strange things on the wall.—Daniel 5:1-5.


The wise men and astrologers of Babylon were unable to interpret the writing, even though Belshazzar promised to give a gold necklace and governmental prominence to anyone who could read and explain the strange handwriting.—Daniel 5:7-9.


When the Hebrew named Daniel was finally brought in, the king repeated his offer—to clothe Daniel with purple, to put a gold necklace on him, and to make him the third ruler in the kingdom. The prophet honorably replied: “Let your gifts prove to be to you yourself, and your presents do you give to others. However, I shall read the writing itself to the king, and the interpretation I shall make known to him.”—Daniel 5:17.


So Daniel did not need to be bribed or paid to provide the interpretation. The king could keep his gifts or bestow them on someone else. Daniel would provide the explanation, not for a reward, but because he was empowered to do so by Jehovah, the true God, whose judgment on Babylon was impending.


As we read at Daniel 5:29, after Daniel had read and interpreted the words as he said he would, the king ordered that the rewards be given to Daniel anyway. Daniel himself did not put on the clothing and the necklace. They were put on him by order of the absolute ruler, King Belshazzar. But this does not conflict with Daniel 5:17, where the prophet made it clear that his motive was not a selfish one.


Jesus later said that “he that receives a prophet because he is a prophet will get a prophet’s reward.” (Matthew 10:41) That hardly applied to Belshazzar, since he was not treating Daniel kindly or respectfully because he respected this faithful man as a prophet of the true God. King Belshazzar was willing to give the same gifts to anyone able to solve the mystery of the handwriting, even some pagan astrologer. The king got the appropriate reward, the one that was in line with the prophetic writing on the wall: “In that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed and Darius the Mede himself received the kingdom.”—Daniel 5:30, 31.