And this is the writing that is written MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
Only four words broke up Belshazzar's feast. Every guest could see them, yet the wisest men in Babylon stood helpless. The problem was not translation. It was a message from God that only God could open.
The king's advisers did not fail at language. One writer points to the real difficulty:
Since the writing was in the Chaldean language, it was not that the king's wise men did not understand the words. It was the connection, application, and interpretation that they could not unfold. Without the key, so many separate words would look to them scattered and meaningless.
Another writer traces that locked meaning back to its author:
Even if someone had read that sentence out, no one could have known its meaning apart from God's teaching. Each word appears to have had a hidden meaning, which God revealed to Daniel. The kingdom was "divided," and given to the Medes and Persians (Peres). So, as always, God alone can interpret what He has caused to be written.
Daniel did more than give the dictionary sense of the four words. The repeat of the first word carries its own message:
Daniel does not just translate the words on the wall. He gives out the mind of God that they were meant to convey. He could not have done this unless God had spoken to him directly. If translated according to their meaning, the words are "numbered," "weighed," and "divided"; but no human cleverness could have discovered their divine significance... The first word came twice. The reason is surely found in Joseph's words to Pharaoh: "And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about" (Genesis 41:32).
The first word deals with time. The One who gave Babylon its power also set the day it would end:
God Himself had entrusted the rule of the earth to Nebuchadnezzar as a responsibility, and He alone decided how long his kingdom would last. So when Daniel told Belshazzar, "God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it," he meant that God had set the end of Babylon's rule and it had now come. Its days were numbered, and they were over.
The second word moves from the calendar to the scales. One writer takes the verdict past Belshazzar to everyone else, with one exception:
Being weighed and found wanting was true of Belshazzar, and it is true of you and me too, my friend. It is true of everyone. There is only One of whom it was not true, and that was the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He was put into God's balances and was found full weight... You and I have been found wanting. The things we ought to have done, we have left undone, and the things we ought not to have done, we have done. That is man.
The last word passes sentence on the kingdom. The timing is what strikes: Daniel gave the verdict while the party was still going:
Daniel at once sees God in the matter. The king had insulted God in what was connected with His worship... Nothing appeared at the time to make it even likely. I point this out for a reason. It is another proof of how completely false the maxim is, that we must wait until prophecy is fulfilled before we can understand it... It was His last solemn warning before the blow fell, and the interpretation was given before the Persians broke into the city — when there was not a sign of ruin, but all was gaiety and mirth.
The same sentence has an address for every reader — and an answer:
Keep this in mind. The awful sentence that struck terror into the heart of the self-indulgent king of Babylon has, in fact, been passed on the entire human race. It falls on each individual son and daughter of fallen Adam: "You are weighed in the balance and found wanting." Has the reader fully accepted this sentence against himself?... If so, Christ is for you. He died to put away sin and to bear your many sins. Only trust Him, and all He is and has is yours.
- Read — The wise men saw the writing; they could not unfold its connection and application. God alone can interpret what God has written.
- Doubled — The first word repeated marks a settled matter: what is fixed by God, God shortly brings to pass.
- Numbered — Babylon's rule was a trust with a term. The God who gave the kingdom set the day it ended.
- Weighed — The scales test the man. Every person is found wanting; only Christ was put in God's balances and found full weight.
- Divided — Daniel gave the verdict while the music still played. Prophecy is meant to be believed before the blow falls, not explained after.
This is the interpretation of the thing MENE, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it;
A hand has written four words on the palace wall, and Belshazzar's feast has stopped dead. Daniel now explains them, starting with the first: MENE. The real question is not what the letters spell. It is who set the length of Babylon's reign, and what it means that the count has run out.
(Note: the quotes below use an older translation. It reads "God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it." The ESV reads "God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.")
Daniel does more here than translate an inscription. One writer notes that the plain meaning of the words was not the message, and that the first word came twice for a reason:
Notice that Daniel does not simply translate the words that had been written. He gives out the mind of God that they were meant to convey. He could not have done this unless he himself had received a direct message from God. Taken at their plain meaning, the words are "numbered," "weighed," and "divided." But no human cleverness could have discovered their divine meaning, and that is what Daniel explains. The first word was repeated. The reason is surely found in Joseph's words to Pharaoh: "And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about" (Genesis 41:32).
The words were plain enough. Their message was not, and only God could give it:
So the kingdom was 'numbered' and finished. It is like when we say of a person, 'his days are numbered.' … And so, as always, God alone can interpret what He has caused to be written. The prophecy came true: the city and the kingdom were taken that same night.
The end of Babylon was not an accident of politics. Daniel had told Nebuchadnezzar years earlier that another empire would follow his:
The king is then told what "Mene," or "numbered," means: God has numbered his kingdom and finished it. Years before, Daniel had told Nebuchadnezzar that God had given him "a kingdom, power, strength, and glory." But he also warned him that another kingdom would rise after his. For sixty-eight years the kings of Babylon had held supreme power over the whole known world. Now the end of the Babylonian Empire had come. Its days were numbered and its world rule was over.
Belshazzar was Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. God had made a promise about that family line, and the timing of the sentence fits it. God did not cut the dynasty short, nor let it run on forever:
Nebuchadnezzar abused the authority the God of heaven had given him, and that could not be forgiven. As to grace beyond our understanding, and his eternal relationship with God, I am persuaded it could be forgiven, and was. But the royal position could not continue past his grandson. God had promised that the kingdom would stay in his family to the third generation (Jeremiah 27:7), and He keeps His word. So He bore patiently with their cruel and idolatrous ways. He waited until bearing any longer would have made Him look indifferent to their shameless tyranny and wickedness. In the end He stepped in with judgment only when He was openly insulted and challenged to fight the powers of darkness.
Notice what Daniel never says to this king. There is no "repent, and it may yet be reversed":
God's patience with the "head of gold" was at an end. So there is no call to repent, nothing but the announcement of God's verdict and the judgment that comes with it.
The sentence fell on a kingdom, but it reached one man's life. And a man can hear the exact words and still not take them in:
MENE meant numbered. The king knew that word, and he knew that TEKEL meant weighed and UPHARSIN meant divided. Numbered, weighed, and divided. "What has that to do with me?" the king might have said. He was soon told. "This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it." Your history is over. You have come to the end of your rope. God has numbered your kingdom on earth, and finished it. Belshazzar heard this, but I do not think he believed it.
Commentators also read the scene as a warning that outlives Babylon:
This chapter shows the blasphemy that marked the end of the Babylonian monarchy. Blasphemy and the rejection of God's truth are all around us. There is a "Mene, Mene, Tekel" for a Christendom that has turned away from God, and for that final phase of Babylon shown in Revelation 17 and 18.
- Numbered. The word has its everyday sense — "his days are numbered." But only God could unlock what it meant.
- Doubled. MENE came twice. Joseph's words to Pharaoh explain why: a doubled word means God has settled the matter and will act soon.
- Granted. The count was God's to set. After sixty-eight years of world rule, and a promise kept to the third generation, the time ran out.
- Patient. God bore with cruelty and idolatry to the last possible day. He acted only when waiting longer would have looked like indifference.
- Finished. By then no call to repent was left, only a verdict. The king heard it and did not believe it, and the city fell that same night.
TEKEL, Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting;
Only a few words appeared on Belshazzar's wall, and each one carried a sentence. "Tekel" is the word that gives the reason for his fall — a verdict on a man, not just on an empire, weighed in scales God has never put away.
The middle word explains why the kingdom had run out of time. It names a test the king had already been through.
The next word "Tekel," meaning "weighed," tells this godless king why his empire had reached its end… God had weighed his actions in scales that never err, and found them wanting.
The standard was not other kings. It was the trust God had handed to Babylon's throne, and an earlier king had answered that trust in a very different way.
If God had handed the rule of the earth to Nebuchadnezzar and to the kings after him, then He held them responsible for the way they used that trust. Now the verdict falls on Belshazzar. Nebuchadnezzar had failed too, though not as far. But when God disciplined him, he humbled himself and acknowledged that his authority came from God… Belshazzar was blind to everything the past had taught. He sinned worse, lifting his idols above the God who held his very breath in His hand, and so he lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven. His time of testing was over.
Daniel read the sentence while the party was still going. Nothing in the room hinted that the empire was about to fall, and that is why God sent the message.
Nothing showed it at the time. There was no sign that made it even likely… This was God's last solemn warning before the blow fell. Daniel gave the meaning before the Persians broke into the city, when there was not a sign of ruin and everything was bright and merry.
The warning left the king hours, not years.
The warning changed nothing in Belshazzar. He gave Daniel high honours, as though his kingdom would carry on, even though Daniel had already refused them. He wore those honours for just a few short hours, because that night the judgment fell as predicted.
This weighing did not begin or end with Belshazzar. There is a reason no one can pass it, and the word "glory" holds the clue.
God is a God of knowledge, and He weighs our actions (1 Sam. 2:3). He weighed the proud king of Babylon and found him wanting (Dan. 5:27). And "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The Old Testament word for "glory" means "weight," and comes from a word meaning "to be heavy." So by God's standard, all fall short of the full weight that alone can glorify Him. There is only One who, when He was tested, was found full and true weight.
The verdict fell on one man. But put anyone else in the same scales — King David, or Peter, or Paul — and what would happen?
That is said of the king of Babylon only. But was there ever a mere child of Adam of whom it could not be said?… Put in one scale what a ruler among men should be, and in the other what even David, the son of Jesse, really was. What does the man after God's own heart have to confess?… What about Peter? What about Paul? Have they not all been found wanting?
If the verdict is true of everyone, what should a person do about it? The answer is not to add weight to your own side of the scale.
"TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting." That was true of Belshazzar, and it is true of you and me too, my friend. It is true of everyone. There is only One of whom it was not true, and that was the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. God put Him in His balances and found Him full weight… You and I have been found wanting. We have left undone the things we ought to have done, and we have done the things we ought not to have done… If that is the case — and you have found it out — what should be done? You will need to reject your own works and rest on Christ.
- Weighed. "Tekel" means weighed. God tested Belshazzar's actions in scales that cannot err, and that is why his empire ended that night.
- Wanting. God measured him against a trust. Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself under God's hand; Belshazzar lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven.
- Warned. The sentence came while the feast was still bright and the city looked safe. Belshazzar answered that last warning by handing out honours, as if the kingdom would go on.
- Wide. The same scales weigh everyone. God's standard is His own glory, and all fall short of it — David, Peter and Paul included.
- Weight. Only Christ weighed full in God's balances. The way out of the verdict is to give up your own works and rest on Him.
PERES, Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
Three words appeared on the wall at Belshazzar's feast. This verse gives the last one — the word that hands Babylon's empire to another people. Daniel says it to a king whose city was still bright with celebration, and it came true.
The words "Peres" and "Upharsin" look different. One writer explains the link:
The third word is "Peres." It is another form of "Upharsin" — both are different parts of the same verb — and it means "divided." The king's contempt for God brought judgment on him at once.
Knowing the language was never the problem. Daniel gave something no scholar could reach:
Daniel does not just translate the words that had been written. He gives out the mind of God that they were meant to convey. He could not have done this unless God had spoken to him directly. Translated by their plain meaning, the words are "numbered," "weighed," and "divided." But no human cleverness could have found their divine meaning, and that is what Daniel explains.
Daniel offers the king no way back, and the sentence reaches past him to his whole kingdom:
The next word, PERES, holds judgment — the public judgment that follows Belshazzar's failure to use the power entrusted to him in governing the earth. God's patience with the "head of gold" was over. So there is no call to repentance. There is only the announcement of the result of God's verdict, and the judgment that comes with it. Altogether this narrative, as has been well said, shows us the final character of the wickedness of the ruling power of the nations, set against the God of Israel. It also shows us the judgment that falls as a result on the kingdom of which Babylon was the head.
The book of Daniel speaks of a line of empires. This verse names the one that takes over from Babylon:
We need not go further than this book of Daniel to find the names of these empires. Chapter 5:28 tells us, "PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians." There is the answer at once. We find the Babylonian kingdom tottering and about to fall. Scripture tells us that the Medes and Persians follow it. Nothing simpler or more certain.
Some have tried to count the Medes and the Persians as two separate empires. The same writer says this verse settled that question in advance:
Trying to separate the Median and the Persian parts, so as to make them the second and third empires, is desperate and unworthy. Daniel 5:28 was clear beforehand, and so were Daniel 6:8, 12, 15... The bear in chapter 7 matches the ram in chapter 8, which had two horns, the kings of Media and Persia. They are plainly not two Beasts, but one combined power.
Nothing in the room suggested the empire was ending:
It was not that anything appeared then. Nothing was seen at the time that made it even likely. I call attention to this, because it is another proof of how completely false that maxim is — that we must wait till prophecy is fulfilled before we can understand it... It was His last solemn warning before the blow fell. Daniel gave the interpretation before the Persians broke into the city, when there was not a sign of ruin, but all was celebration and laughter.
The conquerors named here were already outside the city as Daniel spoke. The king's answer shows he did not believe him:
At that very moment the Medes and the Persians were besieging Babylon... The king thought it could not be taken. But God had prophesied its fall, and now announces the fact. And what takes place? Does Belshazzar bow down in repentance? Alas, no!... The proof of his unbelief was this. He proclaimed that Daniel should be the third ruler in the kingdom, though he had just heard that his kingdom was finished. He did not believe it. But it came true.
Writers read Belshazzar's night as more than ancient history:
Belshazzar's feast, with its splendour and sudden doom, stands as a matter of history and warning. But how few believe it is a picture of the surprising judgment that will overtake the boasting and splendour of this world of pleasure and greatness, in the day of the Lord? The same unerring scriptures that record the past just as surely declare the future. Woe to those who refuse to listen and fail to escape before it is too late.
- Divided — "Peres" and "Upharsin" are two forms of one verb that means "divided." The plain sense was never hidden.
- Revealed — translation alone gave nothing. Daniel could say what God meant only because God told him.
- Ended — this word carries no call to repent. God's patience with the "head of gold" was over.
- Named — this verse names the kingdom that follows. It fixes the Medes and Persians as one empire, the second in Daniel's line.
- Sudden — the sentence came while the feast was still bright. Commentators read that suddenness as the pattern of the judgment still to come.