Text -- Daniel 5:25-31 (NET)

5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEQEL, and PHARSIN. 5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: As for mene– God has numbered your kingdom’s days and brought it to an end. 5:27 As for teqel– you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking. 5:28 As for peres– your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.” 5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, Daniel was clothed in purple, a golden collar was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom. 5:30 And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, was killed. 5:31 So Darius the Mede took control of the kingdom when he was about sixty-two years old.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Dan 5:25

¹ tc The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the repetition of מְנֵא (mÿne’, cf. NAB).

² tc The Aramaic word is plural. Theodotion has the singular (cf. NAB “PERES”).

NET Notes: Dan 5:26

¹ tn Or “word” or “event.” See HALOT 1915 s.v. מִלָּה.

² tn The Aramaic term מְנֵא (mÿne’) is a noun referring to a measure of weight. The linkage here to the verb “to number” (Aram. מְנָה, mÿnah) is a case of paronomasia rather than strict etymology. So also with תְּקֵל (tÿqel) and פַרְסִין (farsin). In the latter case there is an obvious wordplay with the name “Persian.”

NET Notes: Dan 5:28

¹ sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.

NET Notes: Dan 5:29

¹ tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”

NET Notes: Dan 5:30

¹ tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

² sn The year was 539 B.C. At this time Daniel would have been approximately eighty-one years old. The relevant extra-biblical records describing the fall of Babylon include portions of Herodotus, Xenophon, Berossus (cited in Josephus), the Cyrus Cylinder, and the Babylonian Chronicle.

NET Notes: Dan 5:31

¹ sn Beginning with 5:31, the verse numbers through 6:28 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Aramaic text (BHS), with 5:31 ET = 6:1 AT, 6:1 ET = 6:2 AT, 6:2 ET = 6:3 AT, 6:3 ET = 6:4 AT, etc., through 6:28 ET = 6:29 AT. Beginning with 7:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Aramaic text are again the same.