The writing on the wall

For other uses, see The writing on the wall (disambiguation).

Rembrandt's 'Belshazzar's Feast' (1635) captures the scene of fear. (National Gallery, London)

"The hand writing on the wall" (or "the handwriting on the wall" or "the writing is on the wall" or "Mene Mene"), an idiom, is a portent of doom or misfortune. It originates from the Biblical book of Daniel chapter 5 in which the fingers of a supernatural hand write a mysterious message in the presence of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, who is meanwhile drinking at a major feast. It is revealed by Daniel that the writing foretells the demise of the Babylonian Empire and the story concludes with the Persians capturing Babylon. The phrase "the writing is on the wall" is now a popular idiom for "something bad is about to happen."

Belshazzar's feast

For a list of artistic and musical references to the feast, see: Belshazzar's Feast., see The writing on the wall (disambiguation).

In the Book of Daniel 5:1–4, the passage describes "Belshazzar's Feast" in which the sacred vessels of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, which had been brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon of Belshazzar at the time of the Captivity were profaned by the company. The narrative unfolds against the background of the impending arrival of the Persian armies.

"King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone."

Writing on the wall

During the drunken feast, Belshazzar uses the holy golden and silver vessels, from Solomon's Temple, to praise 'the gods of gold and silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone'. Soon afterward, disembodied fingers appear and write on the wall of the royal palace the words:

מנא ,מנא, תקל, ופרסין

Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin

The advisors attempt to interpret the meaning. However, their natural denotations of weights and measures were superficially meaningless: "two minas, a shekel and two parts". Therefore, the King sends for Daniel, an exiled Israelite taken from Jerusalem, who had served in high office under Nebuchadnezzar. Rejecting offers of reward, Daniel warns the king of the folly of his arrogant blasphemy before reading the text. The meaning that Daniel decrypts from these words is based on passive verbs corresponding to the measure names, "numbered, weighed, divided."

And this is the writing that was inscribed: mina, mina, shekel, half-mina. This is the interpretation of the matter: mina, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; shekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; half-mina, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.- Daniel 5:25-28

Although usually left untranslated in English translations of Daniel, these words are known Aramaic names of measures of currency: MENE, a mina (from the root meaning "to count"), TEKEL, a spelling of shekel (from the root meaning "to weigh"), PERES, half a mina (from the root meaning "to divide", but additionally resembling the word for "Persia"). The last word (prs) he read as peres not parsin. His free choice of interpretation and decoding revealed the menacing subtext: "Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting." The divine menace against the dissolute Belshazzar, whose kingdom was to be divided between the Medes and Persians, was swiftly realized. That very night King Belshazzar is slain, and Darius the Mede becomes King.

In The Hand-Writing upon the Wall (1803), James Gillray caricatured Napoleon in the role of Belshazzar.

Historical criticism

The Greek historians Herodotus and Xenophon also record that there was a festival in the city of Babylon the same night it fell to the Persians.

Many scholars have used the Nabonidus Chronicle and Cylinder of Nabonidus to place the date of October 12, 539 BC on the events which transpired in the text. They have compared the dates with astrological predictions to identify the night or dawn at which a new moon would appear during the month of Tashritu, since it is believed that the feast was dedicated to the moon god, Sin.

The setting of the feast at which the temple vessels from Jerusalem were desecrated has been remembered from actual Neo-Babylonian cult practice. In Babylon, the image of Marduk was served meals daily in a style befitting the divine king, including musical accompaniment and beautifully arranged desserts of fruits. After the god's meal, water in a basin was brought and offered to the idol to wash its fingers. According to several extant descriptions, the dishes of food that had been presented to the image were then sent to the king for his consumption. The food had been blessed by its proximity to the god, and the blessing was now transferable to the king. One exception is recorded, on a tablet from Uruk, which mentions that the crown prince— this was Belshazzar— enjoyed the royal privilege.

The ritual importance of the god's sacred leftovers is illustrated in an inscribed claim of Sargon II:

"the citizens of Babylon [and] Borsippa, the temple personnel, the scholars [and] the administrators of the country who [had] looked upon him (Merodach-baladan) as their master now brought the leftovers of Bel [and] Sarpanitu [of Babylon and] Nabu [and] Tasmetu [of Borsippa] to me at Dur-Ladinni and asked me to enter Babylon"

(Oppenheim, pp 188ff)

Idols of conquered cities were ordinarily brought to Babylon and set in positions of reverence to Marduk within his temple. The Israelites, having no idol of YHWH, had been forced to give up the vessels of Solomon's Temple. These are used and defiled in the story by Belshazzar and his nobles.

Jewish interpretations

Some Rabbinic interpretations (see especially Sanhedrin 22a in the Babylonian Talmud), seek to explain why Daniel could read the writing when no one else could, and suggest that the words were written in code. One possibility offered is that it was an atbash cipher, another being that the written Aramaic and Hebrew looked very different, even though they were pronounced similarly. Another idea given is that gematriyatic equivalents for the words were written. Others offered the opinion that the words were written backwards or vertically.

English idiom

The act of a hand writing versus the text of writing

The narrative in Daniel chapter 5 is the source of the popular phrase "the writing on the wall" as a euphemism for impending doom that is so obvious that only a fool would not see it coming. The popular idiom may forgo the fact that it was the sight of the hand which terrified the king. The focus of the English idiom is generally on the interpretation of the writing, a common theme in the book of Daniel in which none of the Babylonians magicians are capable of interpreting, while Daniel is given the ability to interpret.

1. One can "see the hand writing on the wall" by observing the mysterious hand as it writes. Belshazzar witnessed this supernatural event, which led to him being troubled and warned that something was amiss. Observing in this capacity alarms the one who sees the hand.
2. One can "see the handwriting on the wall" by observing the text on the wall, perhaps long after the hand has disappeared. The actual text is strange in that it doesn't really give any details and doesn't convey a clear message. Observing in this capacity does not lead to any understanding of the message.

There is, however, more to the handwriting on the wall than merely seeing it because although many saw it, only Daniel was able to interpret it. The first sense of the idiom (seeing the hand) is therefore followed by the interpreter who was able to truly see the sense of the three bullet points transcribed by the hand. The second sense of the idiom (seeing the handwriting) misconstrues the notion that those who see are those who can understand.

Other phrases and usage

The same passage of scripture also provides the origin for the similar expression "your days are numbered." It may have provided impetus to the idiom "weighed in the balance".

The phrase the writing on the wall has come to signify a portent of doom—or the end of an organization or activity. To attribute to someone the ability to "read the writing on the wall" has come to signify the ability to foresee (not necessarily supernaturally) an inevitable decline and end.

• The Oxford English Dictionary entry on writing has literary references to this phrase in English, including the following verse from the poem "The Run Upon The Bankers" by Jonathan Swift:

  A baited banker thus desponds,
  From his own hand foresees his fall,
  They have his soul, who have his bonds;
  'Tis like the writing on the wall.

• Belshazzar's Feast (Walton) is an oratorio by the English composer William Walton. The work has remained one of Walton's most celebrated compositions and one of the most popular works in the English choral repertoire.

• In John Cheever's short story "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," the narrator encounters graffiti (one example running several pages) in various public washrooms.

• In Robert Louis Stevenson's book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll explains that his experience as Mr. Hyde was "like the Babylonian finger on the wall, to be spelling out the letters of my judgment . . . "

• In Samuel Beckett's Endgame, Hamm asks of Clov, "and what do you see on your wall? Mene, mene? Naked bodies?"

• In Voltairine de Cleyre's last poem, "Written in Red, the first verse begins:

  Written in red their protest stands,
  For the Gods of the World to see;
  On the dooming wall their bodiless hands
  Have blazoned "Upharsin," and flaring brands
  Illumine the message: "Seize the lands!
  Open the prisons and make men free!"
  Flame out the living words of the dead
  Written—in—red.

• In Jose Rizal's second novel El Filibusterismo, Crisostomo Ibarra, disguised as Simoun, planted an explosive disguised as a kerosene lamp in a reception party in Captain Tiago's house, in an attempt to kill all high-ranking officials of the society and the church which will attend. He also leaves a note behind, "Mene, Thecel, Pares", plus his name in his own handwriting.

• In the novel City of Ashes, part of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, Clary uses her stele to write a rune on Valentine's boat. Although the rune simply means "Open", Clary's extraordinary powers amplify it so as to destroy the ship by ripping apart its bolts. Valentine looks on in awed horror and says, "mene mene tekel upharsin", because he realizes that Clary's powers represent a massive change in the order of things, which will lead to his doom.

• In the movie A Knight's Tale, the characters appear in an illusion reciting the words "You have been weighed, you have been measured and you have been found wanting", the rough English translation of Daniel's interpretation.

Further reading

• Towner, W. S. (1984), Daniel: Interpretation Commentary, Atlanta: John Knox Press, ISBN 0804231222.
• Goldingay, J. E. (1989), Daniel: Word Biblical Commentary, Dallas: Word Books, ISBN 0849902290.
• The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Revised Standard Version, Oxford University Press, 1972.

External links

• Keyway.ca
• Jewish Encyclopedia article