Daniel 5:25–30

5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE,51 TEQEL, and PHARSIN.52 5:26 This is the interpretation of the words:53 As for mene54—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 peres55—your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders,56 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,57 was killed.58

51	tc The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the repetition of מְנֵא (méne’, cf. NAB).
52	tc The Aramaic word is plural. Theodotion has the singular (cf. NAB “peres”).
53	tn Or “word” or “event.” See HALOT 1915 s.v. מִלָּה.
54	tn The Aramaic term מְנֵא (méne’) is a noun referring to a measure of weight. The linkage here to the verb “to number” (Aram. מְנָה, ménah) is a case of paronomasia rather than strict etymology. So also with תְּקֵל (téqel) and פַרְסִין (farsin). In the latter case there is an obvious wordplay with the name “Persian.”
55	sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.
56	tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”
57	tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”
58	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.