The fingers of a “man’s hand” appear and write on the wall while the feast of Belshazzar continued. This writing appears on A wall “near the lampstands” so the king can clearly see the hand writing the words. This writing is an inscription and is a parody of Assyrian or Babylonian official writing. Just as the King of Babylon inscribes words on statues or walls, so too the Lord is inscribing his own imperial edict for the king to read. What was the Meaning of the Handwriting on the Wall?
Belshazzar’s reaction is absolute fear, he turns pale, and his legs give way. Literally this is the “bands / knots of his legs were loosed”, he comes very near to fainting. This idiom can be translated a number of different ways, the NRSV, for example, has “his knees knocked together.” Seow suggests that the idiom could be translated “his bowels were loosed” (Daniel, 79).
Belshazzar “calls out” for his advisors. The verb here is a participle, used with a to-be verb to imply a continuous action: he “was screaming” for his advisors. Once again in the book the wise men are consulted but they cannot make anything of the writing. Even though they are educated men, these are scribes and scholars cannot read (or understand) the message.
Was the message intended to be understood? Polaski notes several examples of inscriptions that were meant to be seen but not necessarily read. Inscriptions were power-plays and intended to send a message, even to people that could not read the message (657). Often inscriptions were about more than recording an event. They were a guarantee the event happened or would happen. Thus the judgement on Babylon certain is “written in stone” quite literally.
The Queen (possible Belshazzar’s mother) tells him “Don’t look so pale,” basically “show some backbone!” Belshazzar can look no worse, his mother publicly rebuking his cowardice! (Did she stop to comb his hair and tell him to tuck his shirt in as well?) She recalls what Daniel had done and recommends that he be called in to interpret this writing. She understands that Nebuchadnezzar believed him to be very powerful, and he is summoned. There is a subtle word-play in the queen-mother’s speech. Daniel, she recalls, was able to “loosen knots” (verse 12, “solve problems”), which is ironic since the king had his “knots loosened” (verse 6, perhaps that he has soiled himself!)
Daniel is summoned and questioned by the King. The king asks him if he is Daniel, indicating his ignorance of the man. Belshazzar also promises him the same reward as offered to the wise-men, a promotion to the third highest in the kingdom, essentially riches and power. Daniel is less respectful with Belshazzar than he had been with Nebuchadnezzar. He tells Belshazzar to keep his gifts and then describes Nebuchadnezzar’s glory, implying Belshazzar nothing lie Nebuchadnezzar
The Handwriting on the Wall consisted of four words, all monetary weights: A minah, a tekel (a shekel, 1/60 of a mina), and a parsin (a half, probably of a mina) are common coins. This is an odd message to have caused such a commotion during the wild party of Belshazzar! This interpretation was first suggested in 1886 by Clermont-Ganneau (cited by Driver, Daniel, 69) and is accepted by many scholars.
Daniel tells Belshazzar that the hand was “sent out” by God (it was not God’s hand). The sending of the hand is another element of the imperial rule of God theme in this chapter. A king would not go himself and inscribe a message on a wall, he would send someone to do it for him. So to the sovereign Lord has sent an ambassador to place an inscription on the wall of Belshazzar’s palace. Daniel does not call upon God to help him read the inscription because it is not a mystery – Daniel is simply doing his job as a royal scribe reading the inscription for the king (Polaski, 659).
Rather than nouns, Daniel takes the words as passive participles and build the meaning from a verbal form. Like Hebrew, Aramaic can be written without vowels. When the vowels are supplied, the word may be a noun or a verb (or another word altogether!) The reading of the words may have been complicated by not knowing how they were pronounced.
Daniel interpreted the handwriting on the wall:
- Mene, mene, meaning that God has numbered Belshazzar’s days, the noun mene is taken as a verb, “to count, number.”
- Tekel, God has weighed Belshazzar in the balance and found him wanting, he does not measure up to God’s standard. The root of the word shekel means “to weigh.”
- (U)Parsin, literally split up or divided, meaning that the kingdom will be split between the Medes and the Persians. There is a double meaning here, the Aramaic root prs means to divide, and sounds like the name of the Persian Empire.
Belshazzar does not live out the night. The Persians capture the city that night and Belshazzar is killed. In Daniel 5:30 we there are no details, simply the statement the king was dead and Persia was in control. According to Xenophon the city of Babylon was captured without much resistance while the inhabitants were celebrating a festival (Herodotus 1.191 and Xenophon (Cyropedia VII v. 15-31).
As early as Isaiah 21:9 the prophets announced with joy “Babylon is Fallen” and the vision in Daniel 2 made declared the empire would not last long after the death of the “head of gold” Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 5 declares those prophecies are fulfilled in a spectacular manner. On a theological level, the book of Daniel is clear God established Babylon as an empire and has replaced Babylon with Persia.
For later reader living under the Greek or Roman empires, this message provides hope for a coming Kingdom of God to replace the kingdoms of man.
The handwriting on the wall remains one of the most interesting stories in scriptures. The story became a “go to sermon” for 20th century evangelist Billy Graham where he often warned Americans to not distance themselves so far from God where judgement and an end to their pleasure would occur. It is interesting that text never actually says if any other people, besides Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall. Because of the urgency of Belshazzar and the response of the queen, I do think that others saw the writing. Ultimately, I can see this passage having some similarities to Daniel 12 where the righteous will “shine bright” (Daniel 12:3) and the wicked will be judged in the abnodation of desolation. Lastly, the illustration of King Belshazzar “legs becoming weak and knees shaking” (Daniel 5:6) shows the weakness of man compared to the power of God. We as humans tremble when we are in the presence of God and see the reality of his power. Each of the leaders in Daniel (Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar and Darius) all initially fail when it comes to understanding the power of God.
Thank you for this very insightful article as i have been researching this subject on and off especially since Oct 2013.
This has given a further helpful understanding.
You see On October 27, 2013 God wrote on my wall in 3d Caps “EMP ATTACK EMINENT” four times. Once on each of my walls.
It just dawned on me about 1 month ago that this October 27 makes 7 seven years since the message on my walls was given. I only recently connected that to Genesis 41, God gives nations seven-year warnings. We must prepare. It is now not only EMINENT but Imminent! God Help us…
What the heck it just turned 2024 a couple days ago but in 2023 big news outlets and the government have been talking about a possible EMP attack or just an attack on turning off all the lights and the internet going off and everything and that it would be from a terrorist or a hacker coming from another country like Russia or China, and they want to make it seem like the boogeyman is another country but in reality all nations are working together to form a new world order and it’s our own government doing this to us and who is going to be doing this to us, there was this movie on Netflix called Leave the World Behind that just came out and its about a Cyber attack causing power outages all across the country the movie was produced by Barack Obama and his wife they are part of a secret society and are Satanist they have been preparing us for what’s coming it’s called predictive programming, they use news, shows, movies, and books to do it, they have lied to all of us and made this big illusion making it seem like the boogeyman is someone else like china or russia,when it’s our own government doing all these things to uss when every country is working together to make a new word order and they’re acting like they’re each other’s enemies to make it seem like a repuplic but its not cuz we’re not electing our presidents they are picked and put there by the evil powerful people that control uss and evrything. People dont know that its are own goverment who is going to be doing this to uss because are government is making it seem like its another Nation who is the Boogeyman so that the people could have someone to blame it on and not think that it was their own government when it was. We have to prepare for what’s coming.
Interesting story. Daniel was basically put in retirement but then remembered for his abilities to decipher a puzzle sent by the LORD. We must consider that once again Daniel (his prophecy about our times) is deciphering the final handwriting on the wall. Like then, most won’t believe that new information is available but HE did promise the book of truth to be opened at the end of time. This is in Daniel 11’s truth for the most part. Take a look at Sister Sabines long paper – https://sabineshares.wordpress.com/2020/07/13/the-writing-on-the-heavenly-wall-neowise-crossing-over-the-jordan-first-a-change-then-a-departure/
It’s Sept 2020, the LORD is due any time. Repent and be saved. Thanks for the post and allowing my post.
Daniel
why can Daniel go straight explaining without calling God was that right and this entry can someone do the same
off the wall was a book composed of graffitti -it was published in early 1980s in san francisco the meaning
was that bad things really did happen to the author it occurred to me it was his motive to get his message across
Every time I see graffiti I understand that any writing or defacing of a public space is a testimony to the anger of its population. One does not have to comprehend the meaning of what’s written or sketched, the fact it is there at all says everything about the society in which it appears.
it was in the early 80s someone close to me had a book published entitled the Off the wall – which was a collection of graffitti for a longt time i wondered why he would be intterested in tthat and there was great tradegy soon to befall him and all these years later i realized he was i believe trying to tell us something i mean why else would he do it of course iit coulld interpreted diff but that iw what i believe
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I find the story of the handwriting on the wall to be one of the most interesting stories in Scripture, and I think that many people would agree. The Idiom described in the story is quite interesting to me, especially the various translations (loosened bowels?!? That’s awkward). I did not know before reading this article that the message didn’t necessarily have to be understood, since the indication of power was understood. David, through God’s power, was able to decipher this message, which led to the fall of Belshazzar’s kingdom.
Many people try to predict or decipher things that maybe weren’t meant to be figured out. I think that the widespread use of the internet has aided this movement. While I think that it is good to try to “figure out” the Bible to some degree, I think there are some parts that we aren’t meant to figure out. I think of the words of 1 John 5:20, where we are reminded that Jesus came to earth and gave us understanding, so that we may know that He is the one true God. We can rest in the fact that God is all-knowing (1 John 3:20) and He will reveal to us all that we need to know to live. When we don’t know, we need to lean into Him and walk by faith.
I also like Longman’s (2020) point about how it was difficult for the Babylonians to decipher the message because not only was the message in Hebrew, but it was lacking vowels or spaces. As a linguistics nerd, I found that to be quite interesting.