Daniel 5:26
in Daniel 5And this is the interpretation of the message: MENE means that God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and brought it to an end.
KJV
This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
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This verse in Daniel 5
Commentary
8 notes on this verseVerses 25-28. "This is the inscription which has been set up: MANE, THECEL, PHARES. And this is the interpretation of the sentence: 'MANE' means that God has numbered thy kingdom and brought it to an end. 'THECEL' means it has been weighed in the scales and has been found deficient (Vulg.: thou hast been weighed and hast been found...). 'PHARES' means that thy kingdom has been removed and given to the Medes and Persians."
This site's exposition
God hath numbered thy kingdom
on Daniel 5:26-28
Daniel unpacks each word as a sentence on the kingdom itself: MENE, God has numbered Belshazzar's kingdom and finished it; TEKEL, he is weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, his kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Clarke reads the wordplay in the Aramaic root shared by peres and Persia as deliberate, the very name of the coming conqueror hidden inside the verdict word for division, so that the sentence names its own executor. The three words move from accounting to judgment to political consequence in a single breath, the fullest verdict any king receives in the book.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
And after saying these things he added the following, at once rebuking the king and not receiving his face so that having heard this the king would be afraid and so that he who committed trespasses might immediately recognize them. And so it says, "And you his son, Belshazzar, you have not humbled your heart before God; do you not know all these things? And you have been exalted against the Lord God of heaven and have brought the vessels of his house before you and you and your magistrates and your mistresses and your concubines drank wine from them, and you have praised golden and silver and bronze and iron and wooden and stone gods, which do not see and which do not hear and which do not understand, and God, of whom your breath is in his hand and all your ways are as well, you have not glorified him. On account of this the fingers of a hand have been sent from his face and he ordered this writing: 'Mane, Thekel, Fares.' This is the interpretation of the phrase: 'Mane,' God has measured your kingdom and ended it, 'Thekel,' it has been weighed in the balance and been found wanting, 'Fares,' your kingdom is divided and has been given to the Medes and Persians." [Daniel 5:22-28]
By "interpretation," he refers to the meaning. "Mane: God has measured your kingdom and brought it to an end," that is, he has seen you are unworthy of kingship, and he decided to leave you bereft of it. "Thekel: he was weighed in the balance …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
MENE - MENE MENE, it is numbered, it is numbered; the words are doubled for the greater confirmation. It relates to the number of the seventy years for the overthrow of the Babylonish empire.
): " God has numbered thy kingdom, the years and days of the continuance of it; these were numbered in the counsel of God, and now they are finished; the term has expired for and during which thou wast to hold it, and now it must be surrendered. Here is an end of thy kingdom." (2.) Tekel; that signifies, in Chaldee, Thou art weighed, and, in Hebrew, Thou art too light.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
This is the interpretation of the thing,....
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| דְּנָ֖ה | denah | this | H1836 → | 58 times |
| פְּשַֽׁר־ | peshar- | [is] [the] interpretation of | H6591 → | 31 times |
| מִלְּתָ֑א | mileta' | matter the | H4406 → | 24 times |
| מְנֵ֕א | mene' | mene | H4484 → | 3 times |
| מְנָֽה־ | menah- | he has numbered | H4483 → | 5 times |
| אֱלָהָ֥א | ʾelaha' | <the> God | H426 → | 95 times |
| מַלְכוּתָ֖ךְ | malkhutakh | kingdom your | H4437 → | 57 times |
| וְהַשְׁלְמַֽהּ׃ | vehashlemah | and he has finished it | H8000 → |
דְּנָ֖הthis
denahH1836 →58 times
פְּשַֽׁר־[is] [the] interpretation of
peshar-H6591 →31 times
מִלְּתָ֑אmatter the
mileta'H4406 →24 times
מְנֵ֕אmene
mene'H4484 →3 times
מְנָֽה־he has numbered
menah-H4483 →5 times
אֱלָהָ֥א<the> God
ʾelaha'H426 →95 times
מַלְכוּתָ֖ךְkingdom your
malkhutakhH4437 →57 times
וְהַשְׁלְמַֽהּ׃and he has finished it
vehashlemahH8000 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Daniel 9:2in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 29:10
For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.
- Jeremiah 25:11–12
And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
- 2 Chronicles 36:21
So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD through Jeremiah.
- Zechariah 7:5
“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
- Revelation 1:3
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey what is written in it, because the time is near.
- Jeremiah 29:10
Through
Acts 15:18that have been known for ages.’
it leads to
- Ephesians 3:9
and to illuminate for everyone the stewardship of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
- Ephesians 1:4
For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love
- Isaiah 46:9–10
Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.
- Ephesians 3:9
Where this verse is studied
About Daniel
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel; Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel 3.17.5-6; Jerome, St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER FIVE; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 5:25-28.