Belshazzar's feast
The story of Belshazzar's feast (the writing on the wall) is contained in chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel. In the story, Neo-Babylonian royal Belshazzar holds a feast and drinks from vessels looted from the First Temple. A hand appears and writes on the wall and Belshazzar calls for his wise men, but they cannot read the writing. The queen advises him to send for Daniel, who reminds Belshazzar about Nebuchadnezzar's arrogance and subsequent humiliation (Daniel 4). Daniel reads and interprets the message: God has numbered Belshazzar's days, he has been weighed and found wanting, and his kingdom will be given to the Medes and the Persians.
That very night Belshazzar, the Chaldean [Babylonian] king, was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom […]
— Daniel 5:30–31[1]
Daniel 5 offers a contrast between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar: When Nebuchadnezzar was humbled, he acknowledged the God of Israel and had his throne restored, but Belshazzar did not learn from Nebuchadnezzar's example and his kingdom was instead given to others.[2]
According to John J. Collins, Belshazzar's feast is a legend conforming to the subgenre of the "tale of court contest", complicated by the inclusion of Daniel's indictment of Belshazzar's pride and his failure to honour the God of Israel. As a result, the tale has a double ending, in which Daniel is first showered with rewards and honours for interpreting the omen, and the king is then punished to fulfill the sentence pronounced by Daniel.[3]
From the story, the idiom "the writing on the wall" came to mean seeing from the available evidence that doom or failure is inevitable, and "the writing on the wall" itself can mean anything portending doom or failure.
Summary
Narrative summary
This section summarizes the narrative, as found in C. L. Seow's text translation in his commentary on Daniel.[1]
King Belshazzar holds a great feast for a thousand of his lords and commands that the Temple vessels from Jerusalem be brought in so that they can drink from them, but as the Babylonians drink, a hand appears and writes on the wall. Belshazzar calls for his magicians and diviners to interpret the writing, but they cannot even read it. The queen advises Belshazzar to send for Daniel, renowned for his wisdom. Daniel is brought in, and the king offers to make him third in rank in the kingdom if he can interpret the writing.
Daniel declines the honour, but agrees to the request. He reminds Belshazzar that his father Nebuchadnezzar's greatness was the gift of God and that when he became arrogant, God threw him down until he learned humility: "The Most High God has sovereignty over the kingdom of mortals, and sets over it whomever He will." Belshazzar has drunk from the vessels of God's Temple and praised his idols, but he has not given honour to God, and so God sent this hand and wrote these words:
מנא מנא תקל ופרסין
Daniel reads the words "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN" and interprets them for the king: "MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed ... and found wanting;" and "UPHARSIN", your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed in purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made… that he should rank third in the kingdom; [and] that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean (Babylonian) king was killed, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom".[4]
Writing on the wall
None of the Chaldean wise men can even read, let alone interpret, the writing on the wall, but Daniel does so by supplying vowels in two different ways: first, the words are read as nouns, then as verbs.[5] The nouns are monetary weights: a mənê, equivalent to a Jewish mina or sixty shekels (several ancient versions have only one mənê instead of two); a təqêl, equivalent to a shekel; and p̄arsîn, meaning "half-pieces".[6] The last involves a word-play on the name of the Persians (pārās in Hebrew), suggesting not only that they are to inherit Belshazzar's kingdom, but that they are two peoples, Medes and Persians.[6]
Daniel then interprets the words as verbs based on their roots: mənê is interpreted as meaning "numbered"; təqêl, from a root meaning to weigh, as meaning "weighed" (and found wanting); and pərês (פְּרַס), the singular form of p̄arsîn, from a root meaning "to divide", denoting that the kingdom is to be "divided" and given to the Medes and Persians.[7] If the "half-pieces" means two half-shekels, then the various weights—a mənê or sixty shekels, another shekel, and two half-shekels—add up to 62, which the tale gives as the age of Darius the Mede, indicating that God's will is being worked out.[8]
The phrase "writing on the wall" has grown to be a popular idiomatic expression referring to the foreshadowing of any impending doom, misfortune, or end. A person who does not or refuses to "see the writing on the wall" is being described as ignorant of the signs of a cataclysmic event that will likely occur soon.
One of the earliest known uses of the phrase in English was by Captain L. Brinckmair in 1638, whose report "The Warnings of Germany" during the Thirty Years' War cautioned that the violence there could soon spill over to England.[9] "The writing on the wall" is sometimes referred to by the use of some combination of the words "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin", as they were written on the wall in the tale of Belshazzar's feast. The metaphor has consistently appeared in literature and media as a foreshadowing device since Brinckmair's report.
Shortly before midnight on 21 April 1947, Meir Feinstein or Moshe Barazani wrote "Mene! Mene! Tekel Upharsin!" from Daniel 5:25, on the walls of their shared death row cell in Jerusalem Central Prison in British-controlled Palestine, shortly before they then blew themselves to pieces.[10][11] Their deaths are also commonly associated with another Bible quote – let me die with the Philistines – the words of Samson from Judges 16:30.[12]
Composition and structure
It is generally accepted that the Book of Daniel originated as a collection of folktales among the Jewish community in Babylon in the Persian and early Hellenistic periods (5th to 3rd centuries BC), and was later expanded in the Maccabean era (mid-2nd century) with the visions of chapters 7–12.[13] Modern scholarship agrees that Daniel is a legendary figure,[14] and it is possible that his name was chosen for the hero of the book because of his reputation as a wise seer in Hebrew tradition.[15]
Chapters 2–7 of the book form a chiasm (a poetic structure in which the main point or message of a passage is placed in the centre and framed by further repetitions on either side):[16]
- A. (chapter 2) – A dream of four kingdoms replaced by a fifth
- B. (chapter 3) – Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace
- C. (chapter 4) – Daniel interprets a dream for Nebuchadnezzar
- C'. (chapter 5) – Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar
- B'. (chapter 6) – Daniel in the lions' den
- B. (chapter 3) – Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace
- A'. (chapter 7) – A vision of four world kingdoms replaced by a fifth
Daniel 5 is thus composed as a companion-piece to Daniel 4, the tale of the madness of Nebuchadnezzar, the two giving variations on a single theme. This is spelled out in chapter 5 when Daniel draws a direct parallel between the two kings: the fate of Belshazzar illustrates what happens when a king does not repent.[17]
Daniel 5 does not divide neatly into scenes, and scholars disagree with its structure. The following is one possible outline:[18]
- The king's banquet and the mysterious oracle: the king desecrates the sacred vessels, the hand writes on the wall (verses 1–6)
- Attempts to interpret the oracle: the Chaldean sages fail, the queen recommends Daniel (verses 7–12)
- Daniel appears before Belshazzar: Daniel addresses and rebukes the king, interprets the oracle, and is rewarded (verses 13–29)
- Conclusion: Belshazzar's death, Darius' accession (verses 30–31)
Historical background
The story is set around the fall of Babylon, when on 12 October 539 BCE, the Persian conqueror Cyrus the Great entered the city. Its last king, Nabonidus, was captured; his fate is unknown, although he may have been exiled.[19] Several details in the text do not match the known historical facts.[20] Belshazzar is portrayed as king of Babylon and son of Nebuchadnezzar, but was the son of King Nabonidus, one of Nebuchadnezzar's successors, who deputised for Nabonidus when the latter was away in Teima,[21] but never became king.[20] The conqueror is named Darius the Mede, but no such individual is known to history. The invaders were not Medes, but Persians.[20] John J. Collins suggests this is typical of the story's genre, in which historical accuracy is not an essential element.[22]
The constituent elements of the Book of Daniel were assembled shortly after the end of the Maccabean crisis, which is to say shortly after 164 BCE.[23] The tales making up chapters 2 to 6 are the earliest part, dating from the late 4th or early 3rd centuries. Their setting is Babylon, and there is no reason to doubt that they were composed in the Babylonian diaspora, that is, among the Jewish community living in Babylon and Mesopotamia under Persian and then Greek rule. They reflect a society in which foreign rulers were not necessarily malevolent. For example, Belshazzar rewards Daniel and raises him to high office. This is a marked contrast with the visions of chapters 7–12, where the sufferings of the Jews are the result of actions by the evil 2nd century BCE king Antiochus IV Epiphanes.[24]
Belshazzar's feast in culture
See also
References
Citations
- ^ a b Seow 2003, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Albertz 2001, p. 178.
- ^ Collins 1984, p. 67.
- ^ Seow 2003, p. 75.
- ^ Seow 2003, p. 80.
- ^ a b Seow 2003, pp. 82–83.
- ^ Seow 2003, p. 83.
- ^ Seow 2003, p. 84.
- ^ Brinckmair 1638.
- ^ Cohen, Geula. התפוז שבער – סיפורם של הרוגי המלכות משה ברזני ומאיר פיינשטיין [The Burning Orange: The Story of the Royal Martyrs Moshe Barzani and Meir Feinstein] (PDF) (in Hebrew). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2025-06-30. קול הנפץ שבקע אותו לילה מצינוק המוות בירושלים הלך מסוף העולם ועד סופו. שני בני ירושלים של מטה, שהגיעו בדרך אפופת רזים ועוטה הוד תהומי שכזה לירושלים של מעלה, הביכו את העולם, העירו בו פחדים קדומים והולידו את השמועה, שלאחר מותם של פיינשטיין וברזני, נמצאה חקוקה על כותלי התא שלהם אותה הכתובת המיסתורית שבספר דניאל: "מנא מנא תקל ופרסין", המנבאה את יום בוא החורבן למלכות הרשע בעולם, יום בו יעשה אלוהי ישראל חשבון עם אוייבי ישראל, ימנה וישקול את חטאיהם וישבור את ממלכתם. [...after the deaths of Feinstein and Barzani, the same mysterious inscription from the Book of Daniel was found engraved on the walls of their cell: "Manna, manna, tekel and persin," which prophesies the day of the coming destruction of the kingdoms of evil in the world, a day when the God of Israel will take account of Israel's enemies, count and weigh their sins and break their kingdom.]
- ^ Sources in English:
- "HANGMAN DEFEATED BY CONDEMNED MEN IN PALESTINE". Grey River Argus. Greymouth, New Zealand: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 23 April 1947. p. 5.
The Jewish terrorists Feinstein and Barazini were to have been executed at dawn to-day. However, they blew themselves to pieces shortly before midnight. The two men occupied the same cell. They were visited by Rabbi Jacob Goldman, Jewish chaplain to prisons, and he administered to them the last rites. Tile men committed suicide shortly after he left. Rabbi Goldman was immediately taken to the police headquarters. Feinstein and Barazini are reported to have inscribed the Biblical words, "Mene! Mene! Tekel Upharsin!" on the walls of their ceil before killing themselves with hand grenades. The words quoted are those mentioned in the Book of Daniel, chapter five, verse twenty-five.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - "SUICIDE OF TWO CONDEMNED JEW TERRORISTS". Daily Mercury. Jerusalem, via Mackay, Queensland: Trove, National Library of Australia. British United Press. 23 April 1947. Archived from the original on 2024-12-29.
the two Jewish condemned terrorists, Meyer Feinstein and Moshe Barazani, who were to have been executed before dawn to-day, committed suicide in Jerusalem central prison to-night by blowing themselves to pieces ...Feinstein and Barazani are reported to have in scribed the Biblical words, "Mene, Mene, Tekel Uphaisin" on the walls of their cells before killing themselves. The words quoted are mentioned In the Book of Daniel, chapter 5, verse 25.
- "Condemned Jews Blow Themselves Up". Sunraysia Daily. London, via Mildura, Victoria: Trove, National Library of Australia. British United Press. 23 April 1947. Archived from the original on 2026-03-16.
...Feinstein and Barazani are reported to have inscribed on the walls of their cell before suiciding, the Biblical words, "Mene mene tekel upharsin", which arementioned in the Book of Daniel, chapter 5, verse 25.
- "HANGMAN DEFEATED BY CONDEMNED MEN IN PALESTINE". Grey River Argus. Greymouth, New Zealand: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 23 April 1947. p. 5.
- ^ "The writing on the wall". The Jerusalem Post. Israel. 19 April 2007. Archived from the original on 2021-10-16.
They received a note from underground members about a plan to take their own lives while killing some British policemen during the moments preceding the hanging. It was termed "Operation Shimshon" after the biblical Samson who brought down with him the crowded Philistine temple, claiming "let me die with the Philistines". Barazani and Feinstein were eager to carry out the plan.
- ^ Collins 1984, pp. 29, 34–35.
- ^ Collins 1984, p. 28.
- ^ Redditt 2008, pp. 176–77, 180.
- ^ Redditt 2008, p. 177.
- ^ Collins 1984, pp. 67, 70.
- ^ Newsom & Breed 2014, p. 165.
- ^ Waters 2014, pp. 44–45.
- ^ a b c Seow 2003, pp. 4–6.
- ^ Davies 2001, p. 566.
- ^ Collins 1984, p. 41.
- ^ Collins 2001, p. 2.
- ^ Seow 2003, p. 7.
Sources
- Albertz, Rainer (2001). "Social Setting of Daniel". In Collins, John J.; Flint, Peter W.; VanEpps, Cameron (eds.). The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception. Vol. I. Brill. ISBN 978-9004116757.
- Brinckmair, L. (1638). The Warnings of Germany. By Wonderfull Signes, and strange Prodigies seene in divers parts of that Countrey of Germany, betweene the Yeare 1618. and 1638. Together with a briefe relation of the miserable Events which ensued. All faithfully collected out of credible High Dutch chronicles, and other histories by L. Brinckmair Captaine. As also a learned & godly sermon preached before the lords the States at Norrimberg. Anno 1638. London: John Norton for John Rothwell – via Heritage Auctions.
- Collins, John J. (1984). Daniel: With an Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802800206.
- Collins, John J. (2001). "Current Issues in the Study of Daniel". In Collins, John J.; Flint, Peter W.; VanEpps, Cameron (eds.). The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception. Vol. I. Brill. ISBN 978-0391041271.
- Davies, P. R. (2001). "Daniel". In Barton, J.; Muddiman, J. (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary. Archived from the original on 2017-11-22. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
- Newsom, Carol A.; Breed, Brennan W. (2014). Daniel: A Commentary. Presbyterian Publishing Corp. ISBN 9780664220808.
- Redditt, Paul L. (2008). Introduction to the Prophets. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802828965.
- Seow, C.L. (2003). Daniel. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664256753.
- Waters, Matt (2014). Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BC. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107652729.