Page 151 - Daniel

DANIEL’S INTERPRETATION OF THE WRITING (5:24–28)

5:24–28 “Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing

was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene,
Tekel, and Parsin. This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God
has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;
Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting;
Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

Having shared the most important message Belshazzar needed to hear,
Daniel then turned to read the writing on the wall. There has been
almost endless critical discussion of the inscription’s meaning, and the
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interpretation is complicated by a number of factors. In the book of
Daniel the words are given in Aramaic, but some have questioned this. 22
If it was written in Aramaic script, however, only the consonants may
have appeared. If in cuneiform, the vowels would be included. While in
ordinary discourse the lack of vowels could normally be supplied rather
easily, in a cryptic statement such as this the addition of vowels is a

problem. The inscription on the wall may have appeared like this, “MN’
MN’ TQL PRSN.” The order of the letters in the Aramaic would be the
reverse of this—that is, from right to left.

Young suggests, following some of the rabbis, that the characters may
have been written vertically, and in that case in the Aramaic order
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they would have appeared as follows:

If, in addition to the complications of Aramaic script, some unfamiliar
form of their characters was used, it would indeed have required divine
revelation to give a suitable explanation and interpretation, and may
account for the difficulty in reading the writing. Daniel’s explanation,
however, is reasonable and cogent, and does not give any indication that

the words mean other than he indicates.
The words, in Aramaic, are cognates of several Hebrew words that