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the (hand)writing on the wall.​ The phrase comes from the Biblical story of Daniel, in which the prophet interprets some mysterious writing that a disembodied hand has inscribed on the palace wall, telling King Belshazzar that he will be overthrown.​ During a great feast held by King.
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the Handwriting on the Wall

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And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. Aramaic was the language of the Babylonian court and populace, so why would it have been such a puzzle? It was a written language without vowels and no space between words.

Context, therefore, had a lot to do with understanding what written words meant. This combination of con-sonants could have meant a number of things. Further to this, for those who knew their Aramaic, as even Belshazzar did, even if they did get the right words, the actual phrase written was more or less nonsense.

BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST

The challenge facing Daniel was to find out not only what the words were, but also give them meaning. While others could have read the words, only God, as the author, could have revealed their meaning. Mene repeated twice meant numbered and finished numbering it. Tekel meant weighed, and in a clever change of vowel sounds also means found to be too light. Upharsin meant it was now divided or split.

This time as Daniel interprets the writing, he reads the last word in the singular tense of the verb, thus rendering upharsin as peres. As he had promised, Belshazzar went ahead and clothed Daniel in the royal purple and draped the gold chain around his neck and proclaimed him third ruler in the king-dom. But we do know that he soon discovered the truth.

In what language was the handwriting on the wall? (Daniel )

That very night the Persians entered Babylon According to the Greek historians Herodotus and Xenophon, the Persians diverted the water from the Euphrates that flowed through the city, and they then entered the city under the walls along the riverbed. Babylonian and Persian chronicles say that the Babylonians themselves, and specifically the priests, opened the gates to the Persians and welcomed them as liberators from the tyranny of the Chaldean dynasty.

A translation of an inscription attributed to Cyrus the Great states that on the 16th day of Tashritu equivalent to the 11th of October , BC, Ugbaru the governor of Gutium an area north of Babylon, possibly the area now known as Kurdistan , entered Babylon at the head of the Persian army, without a battle.


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Why would the priests of Babylon have turned against the dynasty? Apparently Nabonidus had angered the priests of many of the various gods worshiped in the region because he brought the idols from the surrounding towns into Babylon in order to ensure greater divine protection for that city from the enemy.

Seow's translation of the text in his commentary on Daniel. 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.

Dottie Peoples - Handwriting On the Wall

Belshazzar calls for his magicians and diviners to interpret the writing, but they are unable even to read them. 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.

The Handwriting on the Wall of Babylon

Daniel declines the honour, but agrees to the request. He reminds Belshazzar that 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. 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.

The Chaldean wise men are unable to read the writing on the wall, let alone interpret it, but Daniel does so by supplying vowels in two different ways, first so the words are read as nouns, then as verbs.

Making Sense of Citizens United

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— 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 : [12]. 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. Daniel 5 does not divide neatly into scenes and scholars do not agree on its structure. The following is one possible outline: [14].

Its last king, Nabonidus , was captured, and his fate is unknown, although he may have been exiled. The constituent elements of the Book of Daniel were assembled shortly after the end of the Maccabean crisis, which is to say shortly after BCE. Their setting is Babylon, and there is no reason to doubt that they were composed in the Babylonian diaspora i. They reflect a society in which foreign rulers were not necessarily malevolent 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.