Daniel 5:26-30

5:26 This is the interpretation of the words: ¹  As for mene ²  – 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 ³  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, ⁴  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, ⁵  was killed. ⁶ 

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.”

³ sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.

⁴ tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”

⁵ tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

⁶ 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.