In the Bible book of Daniel it can be read that during a feast of the Babylonian king Belshazzar a proverb suddenly appears on the wall. Everyone sees the text. It says Mene mene tekel upharsin. However, no one knows what this spell means. Only the Jewish exile Daniel can explain the text.
The banquet included gold and silver cups stolen by Belshazzar’s father Nebuchadnezzar from Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem at the beginning of the Jewish captivity. Many Israelites considered this sacrilege. During the feast, therefore, fingers of a human hand suddenly appeared and wrote the text on the wall. The king turned white and was trembling on his legs, according to the Bible account.
Daniel explained that it was a text in Aramaic: Mene mene tekel ufarsin . Literally this stood for ‘Counted, counted, weighed and divided’. After this Daniel explained the meaning of the words:
“This is what it means: dear – God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; tekel – you have been weighed and found wanting; perees [Daniel used this conjugation as a play on uparsin] — your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.”
This prediction came true almost immediately. Prince Belshazzar was killed that very night, after which his empire passed into Persian hands.
Thanks to this well-known story, two expressions entered our language: “that is a writing on the wall” and “Weighed and found wanting”. Furthermore, the term “mene-tekel” used to be regularly used as a kind of synonym for “imminent warning”.
