Daniel 5:25

And this is the writing that was written,.... They are such and such letters, and so to be read, as follows: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN; which are Chaldee words, and may be literally rendered, "he

And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, . MENE, TEKEL, - literally, numbered, weighed, and dividers.

Daniel 5:25 And this [is] the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, .Ver. 25. MENE, MENE, TEKEL, .] These words signify, He hath perfectly numbered, he hath weighed, and it falleth in pieces. They were the Samaritan characters, saith one, therefore the Babylonians could not read them, nor could the Jews understand them, though they knew the characters, because they understood not the Chaldee tongue as Daniel did. See on Daniel 5:8. Weemse.

(25) Mene . . .—It should be remarked that the word Mene, which occurs twice in the inscription, is found only once in the interpretation, and that the “Medes” who are mentioned in the interpretation are not spoken of in the inscription. Hence it has been conjectured that the second Mene was originally Madai, or Media. This, though it appears plausible, has no external support. The word Mene, “numbered,” is repeated twice for the sake of emphasis. The days of Babylon are numbered; it is God Himself who has numbered them. “Mene” is used in the double sense of “numbering” and “bringing to an end.” Similarly, “Tekel” implies both the act of “weighing” and the fact of “being light.” The “u” in Upharsin is the conjunction “and,” while pharsin, or, rather, parsin, is the plural of peres, a noun which implies “divisions” and also Persians. It appears from Daniel 5:28 that the divided empire of Babylon and the Medo-Persian empire are signified.

Verse 25. And this is the writing] Had the words been written in the Chaldean character, every wise man there, every one that could read the alphabet of his own language, could have read and interpreted them. Let it be observed, - 1. That the character which we now call Hebrew is the Chaldean character. 2. That the true Hebrew character is that which we call the Samaritan. 3. Daniel could easily read this, for it was the character used by the Jews previously to the Babylonish captivity. 4. It appears that it was simply on account of the strangeness of the character that the Chaldeans could not read it. I shall set down the words in both characters, by which the least learned reader may see that it was quite possible that one might be well known, while the other might be unintelligible. Hebrew מנא מנא תקל ופרסין Samaritan [Samaritan] In ancient times, no doubt, these letters differed more from each other than they appear to do now; for we know that the Samaritan on ancient coins, though radically the same, differs very much from that now used in printing. It should be observed, that each word stands for a short sentence; מנא mene signifies NUMERATION; תקל tekel, WEIGHING; and פרש peres, DIVISION. And so the Arabic translates them. [Arabic] mokeeson, measured; [Arabic] mewzonon, weighed; [Arabic] mokesoomon, divided. All the ancient Versions, except the Syriac, read the words simply Mene, Tekel, Phares, as they are explained in the following verses; without the repetition of Mene, and without the conjunction ו vau, and plural termination, ין in, in Peres.

25–28. The reading and interpretation of the writing.

And this is the writing that was written - The Babylonians, it would seem, were unacquainted with the “characters” that were used, and of course unable to understand the meaning. See Daniel 5:8.

25. This was intended to be a puzzle, and it has thoroughly served its purpose.