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Bible Dictionaries
Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN. The words of the handwriting on the wall, which, according to Daniel 5:5; Daniel 5:26 , appeared mysteriously at Belshazzar’s feast, and was successfully deciphered by Daniel alone ( Daniel 5:26-28 ), in Daniel 5:25 the words of the inscription (‘the writing … inscribed ,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ) are given as above, but in the explanation ( Daniel 5:26-28 ) are quoted in a divergent form, and no account is taken of the repetition of the first word. This discrepancy can best be accounted for by assuming that the words of the inscription as given in Daniel 5:25 already lay in their present form before the author, and are not the product of his free invention; while Daniel 5:26-28 are the result of ‘an attempt to extract from the words, in spite of grammar, a meaning suitable to the occasion.’
What, then, is the real significance of the mysterious words? As has been shown by M. Clermont-Ganneau in the Journal Asiatique for 1886, they are really names of weights. Mene is the Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] equivalent of the Heb. maneh ( Ezekiel 45:12 , Ezra 2:69 ) and = mina; tekel = shekel; and pharsin is a plural, and probably represents a word ( perâs lit. ‘division’) which means half-mina. Thus the four words read consecutively: ‘A mina, a mina, a shekel, and half-minas.’ The enigmatic character of the combination apparently consisted partly in the manner in which the words were supposed to have been written perhaps in some unfamiliar form of Aramaic cursive or with some curious inversion in arrangement and partly in determining their import even when read. The appositeness of a list of three weights in such a connexion is not obvious. In deducing a meaning fitted to the occasion Daniel’s skill as an interpreter of riddles is strikingly set forth. Each of the mysterious words is invested with a meaning suggested by etymological affinities. The term for ‘mina’ is connected with a root meaning ‘to number’; hence it signifies ‘God hath numbered thy kingdom and brought it to an end’: ‘shekel’ is connected with a root meaning ‘to weigh,’ and hence ‘thou hast been weighed in the balance and found wanting’: ‘half-mina’ ( perâs ) suggests a double play; ‘thy kingdom is divided (peris ) and given to the Persians (Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] pâras = ‘Persian’). It should be noticed that a double interpretation is apparently given throughout, each of the words having perhaps been read in two ways, and the meanings combined (see art. ‘Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin’ in Hastings’ DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] for details). Another possible rendering is, ‘He has counted, counted, weighed, and they assess’ (?a commercial formula). Possibly ‘an actual inscription found on the walls of the palace at Babylon, or, at any rate, found somewhere, was worked by the author of Daniel into this dramatic scene and arbitrarily explained’ (D. S. Margoliouth, ib .).
G. H. Box.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/m/mene-mene-tekel-upharsin.html. 1909.
