MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN.The words of the handwriting on the wall, which, according to Dan_5:5; Dan_5:26, appeared mysteriously at Belshazzars feast, and was successfully deciphered by Daniel alone (Dan_5:26-28), in Dan_5:25 the words of the inscription (the writing
inscribed, RV [Note: Revised Version.] ) are given as above, but in the explanation (Dan_5:26-28) are quoted in a divergent form, and no account is taken of the repetition of the first word. This discrepancy can best be accounted for by assuming that the words of the inscription as given in Dan_5:25 already lay in their present form before the author, and are not the product of his free invention; while Dan_5:26-28 are the result of an attempt to extract from the words, in spite of grammar, a meaning suitable to the occasion.
What, then, is the real significance of the mysterious words? As has been shown by M. Clermont-Ganneau in the Journal Asiatique for 1886, they are really names of weights. Mene is the Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] equivalent of the Heb. maneh (Eze_45:12, Ezr_2:69) and = mina; tekel = shekel; and pharsin is a plural, and probably represents a word (perâs lit. division) which means half-mina. Thus the four words read consecutively: A mina, a mina, a shekel, and half-minas. The enigmatic character of the combination apparently consisted partly in the manner in which the words were supposed to have been writtenperhaps in some unfamiliar form of Aramaic cursive or with some curious inversion in arrangementand partly in determining their import even when read. The appositeness of a list of three weights in such a connexion is not obvious. In deducing a meaning fitted to the occasion Daniels skill as an interpreter of riddles is strikingly set forth. Each of the mysterious words is invested with a meaning suggested by etymological affinities. The term for mina is connected with a root meaning to number; hence it signifies God hath numbered thy kingdom and brought it to an end: shekel is connected with a root meaning to weigh, and hencethou hast been weighed in the balance and found wanting: half-mina (perâs) suggests a double play; thy kingdom is divided (peris) and given to the Persians (Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] pâras = Persian). It should be noticed that a double interpretation is apparently given throughout, each of the words having perhaps been read in two ways, and the meanings combined (see art. Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin in Hastings DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] for details). Another possible rendering is, He has counted, counted, weighed, and they assess (?a commercial formula). Possibly an actual inscription found on the walls of the palace at Babylon, or, at any rate, found somewhere, was worked by the author of Daniel into this dramatic scene and arbitrarily explained (D. S. Margoliouth, ib.).
G. H. Box.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909