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Read the Bible
New King James Version
Daniel 5:27
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- CondensedDevotionals:
- DailyParallel Translations
‘Tekel’ means that you have been weighed on the balance and found deficient.
TEKEL; you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.
Tekel ; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
Tekel , you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting;
"'TEKEL'—you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found not good enough.
'TEKEL'—you have been weighed on the scales [of righteousness] and found deficient;
Tekel, thou art wayed in the balance, and art found too light.
" 'TEKEL'—you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.
TEKEL means that you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.
‘T'kel' — you are weighed on the balance-scale and come up short.
TEKEL, Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting;
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found not good enough.
TEKEL, You are weighed in the balances and found wanting.
weight, you have been weighed on the scales and found to be too light;
"‘Tekel'—you have been weighed on scales and you have been found wanting.
A SHEKEL: You are weighed in the balances and found lacking.
Thetel, Thou art weyed in the balaunce, and art founde to light:
tekel ; thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
Tekel; you have been put in the scales and seen to be under weight.
TEKEL, Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
TEKEL, thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
THECEL, thou art wayed in the balauce, and art founde wanting.
Thekel; it has been weighed in the balance, and found wanting.
TEKEL; thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
TEKEL; you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.
Techel, thou art weied in a balaunce, and thou art foundun hauynge lesse;
TEKEL; you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.
TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
As for teqel—you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking.
Tekel means ‘weighed'—you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up.
‘TEKEL' means that you have been weighed and found to be too light.
tekel , you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting;
T'kel, - thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting;
THECEL: thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting.
TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting;
Weighed -- Thou art weighed in the balances, and hast been found lacking.
"Teqel: You have been weighed on the scales and you don't weigh much.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Thou: Job 31:6, Psalms 62:9, Jeremiah 6:30, Ezekiel 22:18-20
art: Matthew 22:11, Matthew 22:12, 1 Corinthians 3:13
Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 2:3 - by him Proverbs 16:2 - but Ezekiel 5:1 - then Revelation 3:2 - thy works
Gill's Notes on the Bible
TEKEL,.... As for the meaning of this word, and what it points at, it is this:
thou art weighed in the balances: of justice and truth, in the holy righteous law of God; as gold, and jewels, and precious stones, are weighed in the scales by the goldsmith and jeweller with great exactness, to know the worth of them:
and art found wanting; found to be adulterated gold, reprobate silver, bad coin, a false stone; found to be a worthless man, a wicked prince, wanting the necessary qualifications of wisdom, goodness, mercy, truth, and justice. The Scriptures of truth, the word of God, contained in the books of the Old and New Testament, are the balances of the sanctuary, in which persons, principles, and practices, are to be weighed; and sad it is where they are found light and wanting: men, both of high and low degree, when put here, are lighter than vanity. The Pharisee, or self-righteous person, when weighed in the balance of God's law, which is holy, just, and good, will be found wanting of that holiness and righteousness he pretends to, and appear to be an unholy and an unrighteous man; his righteousness, neither for the matter of it, nor manner of performing it, being agreeable to that law, and so no righteousness in the sense of it, Deuteronomy 6:25, it being imperfect, and so leaves him to the curse of it, Galatians 3:10, and not being performed in a pure and spiritual manner that it requires, is rejected by it; and miserable will be the case of such a man at the day of judgment, when his works will be found wanting, and not answerable to the demands of a righteous law, and he without the wedding garment of Christ's righteousness, and so naked and speechless. The hypocrite, and formal professor, when weighed in the balance of the Scripture, will be found wanting the true grace of God; his faith will appear to be feigned, and his hope groundless, and his love to be in word and in tongue only, and not at all to answer to the description of true grace given in the word of God; and bad will it be with such persons at last, when at the bridegroom's coming they will be destitute of the oil of true and real grace; only have that which is counterfeit, and the mere lamp of an outward profession, which will then stand them in no stead, or be of any avail unto them: in the same balances are the doctrines and principles of men to be weighed; and, such as are according to them are solid and weighty, and are comparable to gold, silver, and precious stones; but such as are not are light, and like wood, hay, and stubble, which the fire of the word will reveal, try, and burn up, not being able to stand against it; and if these are weighed in the balances, they will be found wanting of real truth and goodness, and be but as chaff to wheat; and what is the one to the other? there is no comparison between them; and dreadful will be the case of false teachers, that make and teach an abomination and a lie; and of those that are given up to believe them, these will not be able to stand the trying hour of temptation, and much less the last and final judgment. Sad for preachers of the word to be found wanting in their ministry, and hearers to be wanting in their duty; not taking care neither what they hear, nor how they hear, or whether they put in practice the good they do hear.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Tekel - This word (×ª×§× teqeÌl) is also, according to Gesenius, a passive participle (from ×ª×§× teqal - âto poise, to weighâ), and means âweighed.â It would be used with reference to anything placed in a balance to ascertain its weight; and hence, like the word âmeasure,â would denote that the extent, dimensions, true worth, or character of anything was ascertained. As by the use of scales the weight of anything is known, so the word is applied to any estimate of character or of actions, and a balance becomes the emblem of justice. Thus God, in his judgments of men, is represented as âweighingâ their actions. 1 Samuel 2:3, âthe Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.â Compare Job 6:2 :
âO that my grief were thoroughly weighed,
And my calamity laid in the balances together.â
Job 31:6 :
âLet me be weighed in an even balance,
That God may know mine integrity.â
The balance thus used to denote judgment in this life became also the emblem of judgment in the future state, when the conduct of men will be accurately estimated, and justice dealt out to them according to the strict rules of equity. To illustrate this, I will insert a copy of an Egyptian âDeath Judgment,â with the remarks of the editor of the âPictorial Bibleâ in regard to it: âThe Egyptians entertained the belief that the actions of the dead were solemnly weighed in balances before Osiris, and that the condition of the departed was determined according to the preponderance of good or evil. Such judgment scenes are very frequently represented in the paintings and papyri of ancient Egypt, and one of them we have copied as a suitable illustration of the present subject. One of these scenes, as represented on the walls of a small temple at Dayr-el-Medeeneh, has been so well explained by Mr. Wilkinson, that we shall avail ourselves of his description, for although that to which it refers is somewhat different from the one which we have engraved, his account affords an adequate elucidation of all that ours contains. âOsiris, seated on his throne, awaits the arrival of those souls that are ushered into Amenti. The four genii stand before him on a lotus-blossom (ours has the lotus without the genii), the female Cerberus sits behind them, and Harpocrates on the crook of Osiris. Thoth, the god of letters, arrives in the presence of Osiris, bearing in his hand a tablet, on which the actions of the deceased are noted down, while Horus and Arceris are employed in weighing the good deeds of the judged against the ostrich feather, the symbol of truth and justice. A cynocephalus, the emblem of truth, is seated on the top of the balance. At length arrives the deceased, who appears between two figures of the goddess, and bears in his hand the symbol of truth, indicating his meritorious actions, and his fitness for admission to the presence of Osiris.â
âIf the Babylonians entertained a similar notion, the declaration of the prophet, âThou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting!â must have appeared exceedingly awful to them. But again, there are allusions in this declaration to some such custom of literally weighing the royal person, as is described in the following passage in the account of Sir Thomas Roeâs embassy to the great Mogul: âThe first of September (which was the late Mogulâs birthday), he, retaining an ancient yearly custom, was, in the presence of his chief grandees, weighed in a balance: the ceremony was performed within his house, or tent, in a fair spacious room, whereinto none were admitted but by special leave. The scales in which he was thus weighed were plated with gold: and so was the beam, on which they hung by great chains, made likewise of that most precious metal. The king, sitting in one of them, was weighed first against silver coin, which immediately afterward was distributed among the poor; then was he weighed against gold; after that against jewels (as they say), but I observed (being there present with my ambassador) that he was weighed against three several things, laid in silken bags in the contrary scale. When I saw him in the balance, I thought on Belshazzar, who was found too light. By his weight (of which his physicians yearly keep an exact account), they presume to guess of the present state of his body, of which they speak flatteringly, however they think it to be. ââ
Thou art weighed in the balances - That is, this, in the circumstances, is the proper interpretation of this word. It would apply to anything whose value was ascertained by weighing it; but as the reference here was to the king of Babylon, and as the whole representation was designed for him, Daniel distinctly applies it to him: âthou art weighed.â On the use and application of this language, see 1 Samuel 2:3 : âThe Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.â Compare also Job 31:6; Proverbs 16:2, Proverbs 16:11.
And art found wanting - This is added, like the previous phrase, as an explanation. Even if the word could have been read by the Chaldeans, yet its meaning could not have been understood without a Divine communication, for though it were supposed to be applicable to the monarch, it would still be a question what the result of the weighing or trial would be. That could have been known to Daniel only by a communication from on high.
