Daniel 5

Daniel 5:25-28:
“And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; TEKEK: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. 

The three words seem to be Aramaic words. While these words may have been familiar to the king, the message in writing was so terse he could not understand it. Scholars have spent considerable effort to explore the origin and meaning of each of these three terms. We need not rely on such efforts to determine the meaning of the writing on the wall. The king did not need a dictionary; he needed the interpretation of the meaning of these three words as written, in the context of that moment of history. In effect, it would seem that the message on the wall was a kind of abbreviation, summed up in three words. Daniel explained that the twice-used term ‘MENE’ informed the king that God had numbered his kingdom and was putting an end to it (verse 26). In effect, God seems to be saying to Belshazzar, “Time’s up.” ‘TEKEL’ meant the king had been weighed on the scales of divine justice and found deficient. The king had given God short measure. ‘PERES’60 is the divine notification that the Babylonian kingdom was to be divided and handed over to the Medes and the Persians.

The rest of the story is told in chapter five of Daniel’s commentary on that fateful night in Babylon— Belshazzar’s last. The most powerful nation on the earth came to an end on the night when Cyrus and his legions stormed the city. This was an abrupt end to the nation that boasted its power to the rest of the world. This was the super power of the world in Daniel’s day without rival, so they thought. The handwriting on the wall indicated that Babylon’s day of destruction had come; however, it should have been no surprise to anyone--if, if, if they had a knowledge of God’s prophetic Word. Long before this—seventy years before--the promise of and a waste. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall be, when seventy years are fulfilled I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, and the land of the Chaldeans, says Jehovah, for their iniquity, and I will make it an everlasting ruin” (Jer. 25:11, 12). -His Truth Ministries: Part 1—The Handwriting on the Wall - Why Was Prophecy Given?