Daniel 5:24-31

5:24 Therefore the palm of a hand was sent from him, and this writing was inscribed.

5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, 1  TEQEL, and PHARSIN. 2  5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: 3  As for mene 4  – 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 5  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, 6  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, 7  was killed. 8  5:31 (6:1) 9  So Darius the Mede took control of the kingdom when he was about sixty-two years old.

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”).

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

4 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.”

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

6 tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”

7 tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

8 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.

9 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.