Wall inscription made by “the fingers of a man’s hand” in the Chaldean royal palace while Belshazzar was throwing a great party. The king had sent for “the vessels of gold and silver” that Nebuchadnezzar had brought from the “temple of Jerusalem to drink from. Being drunk with his greats and his women, praising his gods, the phenomenon took place. The court sages were unable to read the inscription or interpret it. Daniel, called on the case, was able to do it. The Jewish sage saw in the writing an allusion to monetary signs used at the time, related to a scale that was what was used to testify the weight of the coins.
†œMene† means †œcounted† . Daniel interpreted: “God numbered your kingdom, and has put an end to it” (Dan 5:26). ‘Tekel’ was a measure of weight. Daniel interpreted: “You have been weighed in the balance, and you were found wanting” (Dan 5:27). †œUparsin† is the word parsin (divisions, breaks) with the Aramaic conjunction u in front, equivalent to the †œy† of Spanish. RV60 transliterated it as †œUparsin† , but linguistic experts point out that it should be †œy parsin† . There is a play on words with the term peres, which means division, which is very similar to paras, which was what the Persians were called. Parsin is the plural of peres. Daniel interpreted: “Your kingdom has been broken, and given to the Medes and the Persians” (Dan 5:28).
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
The writing that appeared on the wall during Belshazzar’s feast (Dan. 5.25, °bj mene, mene, tequel Y parsinbecause the u of u-parsin is the conjunction “and”, after which the p becomes the aspirate f. In Daniel’s interpretation (vv. 26–28) menē˒ derives from arm. ore’‘to count’, indicating that the days of the Chaldean empire had been numbered and were coming to an end; teqēl derives from arm. teqal‘weigh’ (cf. Heb. Saqal, from which “shekel” derives), indicating that Belshazzar had been weighed in the divine scales and found wanting; and the plural parsian was replaced by the singular pereswhich derives from arm. pears‘to divide’, indicating that the empire would be divided between the Medes and the Persians (pārāswith a further pun on the root pr (°vrv2, °vm“ peres ”).
The ministry did not reside in the deciphering of the voices arm., but in its meaning. At first sight they denoted a series of weights or monetary units: “a mina, a mina, a shekel and a half shekel” (bab. parisu), or, if we consider that the first word is an imperative of the verb ore, “count a mina, a shekel and a half shekel.” But there was no context that would make these words clear to the king or his elders.
Various scholars have made unsuccessful attempts to relate the specified units to successive rulers of Babylon; p. eg Nebuchadnezzar (one mina), Belshazzar (one shekel), Medes and Persians (divisions) (CS Clermont-Ganneau, AH Sayce); Evil-merodach and Neriglissar (two mines), Labasi-marduk (one shekel), Nabonidus and Belshazzar (two half-mines) (EG Kraeling); Nebuchadnezzar (a mina), Evil-merodach (a shekel), Belshazzar (half a mina) (HL Ginsberg); Nebuchadnezzar (a mina), Nabonidus (a shekel); Belshazzar (half a mina) (DN Freedman, who concludes, on the basis of Nabonidus’ Prayer from Qumran, that Daniel’s account originally knew of these three Chaldean kings). These efforts are fascinating, but they are not conclusive.
Bibliography. °EW Heaton, The Book of Daniel, 1961; EL Carballosa, Daniel and the messianic kingdom, 1979; L. Alonso Schökel, Daniel, Baruch, Jeremiah, Lamentations, 1976; id., The Prophets, 1980, t
Comments on Daniel by JA Montgomery, 1927, EW Heaton, 1956, A Jeffery, IB, 6, 1956, and JG Baldwin, TOTC, 1978, ad. loc.; CS Clermont-Ganneau, Journal Asiatique, series 8.1, 1886, pp. 36s; AH Sayce, The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments 1895, pp. 530s; EG Kraeling, JBL 63, 1944, p. 11ff; H. L. Ginsbery, Studies in Daniel, 1948, p. 24ff; O. Eissfeldt, “Die Mene-tekel-Inschrift”, ZAW 62, 1951, p. 105ff; DN Freedman, BASOR 145, February 1957, pp. 31s.
ffb
Douglas, J. (2000). New Biblical Dictionary: First Edition. Miami: United Bible Societies.
Source: New Bible Dictionary