MANE, THECEL, PHARES. — Mysterious signs read by the prophet Daniel, which appeared on the wall in the hall of the great feast, where Belshazzar profaned the sacred vessels (*Dan.* 5).
The Hebrew has: *mēnē*, *mēnē*, *tēqēl fīpharsīn* (*Dan.* 5, 25). *Mēnē* is the passive participle of the Aramaic *mēnāh* “to number,” “to count,” and the indeterminate form of the Aramaic *minjāh* “mina” (a coin); *tēqēl* corresponds to the Hebrew *šeqel* “shekel”; *parsin* is the plural of *parsu* (Akkadian) “part,” “half-mina.” The first word, which is missing in the Vulgate, is repeated both to render the threat more solemn and to hint at the various hidden meanings in each term. Since these were signs representing coins or weights, they appeared on the wall not as words, and this explains why the magicians could not decipher their meaning or the logical connection.
Here is the explanation (*Dan.* 5, 26 ff.): *mēnē* = “numbered”; Daniel completes it: “God has numbered the days of your kingdom,” to bring it to an end. *Tēqēl*, considering only the consonants, can be read as the past participle *tēqēl*, “weighed”: “you have been weighed”; and *tēqēl* from the root *qāla* “to be light”: “and you have been found wanting.” Finally, the consonants alone of *pērēs* (the singular of *parsin*) also yield the passive participle *pērēs* “broken,” “shattered”: “your kingdom is broken and given to the Medes and Persians” (*Pāras*, again the same consonants). Thus from the names of the coins Daniel draws the three sentences of the terrible condemnation against Belshazzar.