Daniel 5:26

King James Version

This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene ; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
This is the interpretation of the message:

Hebrew Names Version
This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God has numbered your kingdom, and brought it to an end;

English Standard Version
This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene , God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;

New American Standard Bible
"This is the interpretation of the message: 'MENE'—God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.

New Century Version
"This is what the words mean: Mene: God has counted the days until your kingdom will end.

Amplified Bible
"This is the interpretation of the message: 'MENE'—God has numbered the days of your kingdom and put an end to it;

Geneva Bible (1587)
This is the interpretation of the thing, Mene, God hath nombred thy kingdome, and hath finished it.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"This is the interpretation of the message: 'MENE'—God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.

Berean Standard Bible
And this is the interpretation of the message: MENE means that God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

Complete Jewish Bible
This is what it means: ‘M'ne!' — God has counted up your kingdom and brought it to an end.

Darby Translation
This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it;

Easy-to-Read Version
"This is what these words mean: Mene: God has counted the days until your kingdom will end.

George Lamsa Translation
This is the interpretation of the words: MENE, God has numbered your kingdom and brought it to an end.

Good News Translation
And this is what it means: number, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;

Lexham English Bible
"This is the explanation of the matter: ‘Mene'—God has numbered your kingdom and brought an end to it.

Literal Translation
This is the meaning of the thing: A MINA: God has numbered your kingdom and finished it.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Now the interpretacion off the thynge is this: Mane, God hath nombred thy kyngdome, and brought it to an ende:

American Standard Version
This is the interpretation of the thing: mene ; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and brought it to an end.

Bible in Basic English
This is the sense of the words: Mene; your kingdom has been numbered by God and ended.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and brought it to an end.

King James Version (1611)
This is the interpretation of the thing, MENE, God hath numbred thy kingdome, and finished it.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Now the interpretation of the thing is this: MENE, God hath numbred thy kingdome, and brought it to an ende.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
This is the interpretation of the sentence: Mane; God has measured thy kingdom, and finished it.

English Revised Version
This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and brought it to an end.

World English Bible
This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God has numbered your kingdom, and brought it to an end;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And this is the interpretyng of the word. Mane, God hath noumbrid thi rewme, and hath fillid it;

Update Bible Version
This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God has numbered your kingdom, and brought it to an end;

Webster's Bible Translation
This [is] the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.

New English Translation
This is the interpretation of the words: As for mene—God has numbered your kingdom's days and brought it to an end.

New King James Version
This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it;

New Living Translation
This is what these words mean: Mene means ‘numbered'—God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end.

New Life Bible
And this is what it means: ‘MENE' means that God has numbered the days of your rule and has brought it to an end.

New Revised Standard
This is the interpretation of the matter: mene , God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
This, is the interpretation of the thing, - M'ne, God hath reckoned up thy reign, and ended it:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And this is the interpretation of the word. MANE: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and hath finished it.

Revised Standard Version
This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;

Young's Literal Translation
This [is] the interpretation of the thing: Numbered -- God hath numbered thy kingdom, and hath finished it.

Contextual Overview

¹⁰ Now the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house: and the queen spake and said, O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed: ¹¹ There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers; ¹² Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation. ¹³ Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spake and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry? ¹⁴ I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee. ¹⁵ And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof: but they could not shew the interpretation of the thing: ¹⁶ And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom. ¹⁷ Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. ¹⁸ O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour: ¹⁹ And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

God: Daniel 9:2, Job 14:14, Isaiah 13:1 - Isaiah 14:32, Isaiah 21:1-10, Isaiah 47:1-15, Jeremiah 25:11, Jeremiah 25:12, Jeremiah 27:7, Jeremiah 50:1 - Jeremiah 51:64, Acts 15:18

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 1:45 - This is Esther 6:13 - If Mordecai Job 14:5 - his days Psalms 37:13 - his day Proverbs 14:32 - driven Jeremiah 51:13 - thine Jeremiah 51:44 - I will bring Matthew 4:9 - I give

Gill's Notes on the Bible

This is the interpretation of the thing,.... Or, "word" z; for they might all seem as one word; or this is the sense of the whole:

MENE; as for this word, it signifies,

God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it; God had fixed the number of years, how long that monarchy should last, which he was now at the head of, and which was foretold, Jeremiah 25:1, and also the number of years that he should reign over it; and both these numbers were now completed; for that very night Belshazzar was slain, and the kingdom translated to another people: and a dreadful thing it is to be numbered to the sword, famine, and pestilence, or any sore judgment of God for sin, as sometimes men are; so more especially to be appointed to everlasting wrath, and to be numbered among transgressors, among the devils and damned in hell.

z מלתא "sermonis", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "verborum", Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Broughtonus "verbi", Cocceius; "illius verbi", Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This is the interpretation of the thing - It may seem not to have been difficult to interpret the meaning of the communication, when one was able to read the words, or when the sense of the words was understood. But, if the words are placed together, and considered in their abstract form, the whole communication would be so enigmatical that the interpretation would not be likely to occur to anyone without a Divine guidance. This will appear more clearly by arranging the words together, as has been done by Hales:

MENE, number,

MENE, number,

TEKEL, weight,

(PERES) (division)

UPHARSIN, division.

Or, as it is explained more accurately by Berholdt and Gesenius:

Mene, Numbered,

Mene, Numbered,

Tekel, Weighted,

Upharsin. Divided.

From this arrangement it will be at once seen that the interpretation proposed by Daniel was not one that would have been likely to have occurred to anyone.

Mene - מנא m^enê'. This word is a passive participle from מנה m^enâh - “to number, to review.” - Gesenius, “Lex.” The verb is also written מנא m^enâ' - Buxtorf, “Lex.” It would be literally translated “numbered,” and would apply to that of which an estimate was taken by counting. We use now an expression which would convey a similar idea, when we say of one that “his days are numbered;” that is, he has not long to live, or is about to die. The idea seems to be taken from the fact, that the duration of a man’s life cannot usually be known, and in the general uncertainty we can form no correct estimate of it, but when he is old, or when he is dangerously sick, we feel that we can with some degree of probability number his days, since he cannot now live long. Such is the idea here, as explained by Daniel. All uncertainty about the duration of the kingdom was now removed, for, since the evil had come, an exact estimate of its whole duration - of the number of the years of its continuance - could be made. In the Greek of Theodotion there is no attempt to translate this word, and it is retained in Greek letters - Μανὴ Manē. So also in the Codex Chisianus and in the Latin Vulgate.

God hath numbered thy kingdom - The word which is used here, and rendered “numbered” - מנה m^enâh - is the verb of which the previous word is the participle. Daniel applies it to the “kingdom” or “reign” of the monarch, as being a thing of more importance than the life of the king himself. It is evident, if, according to the common interpretation of Daniel 5:30, Belshazzar was slain that very night, it “might” have been applied to the king himself, meaning that his days were numbered, and that he was about to die. But this interpretation (see Notes) is not absolutely certain, and perhaps the fact that Daniel did not so apply the word may be properly regarded as one circumstance showing that such an interpretation is not necessary, though probably it is the correct one.

And finished it - This is not the meaning of the word “Mene,” but is the explanation by Daniel of the thing intended. The word in its interpretation fairly implied that; or that might be understood from it. The fact that the “kingdom” in its duration was “numbered,” properly expressed the idea that it was now to come to an end. It did actually then come to an end by being merged in that of the Medes and Persians.