Mane, Thecel, Phares

MANE, THECEL, PHARES. - Mysterious signs, read by the prophet Daniel, that appeared on the wall in the hall of the great banquet, at which Belshazzar profaned the sacred vessels (Dan. 5).

The Hebrew has: ménē', ménē', tēgēl śphursin (Dan. 5:25). Ménē' is the passive participle of the Aramaic ménēh "to number," "to count," and the indeterminate state of the Aramaic minjāh "mina" (a coin); tēgēl corresponds to the Hebrew leqel "shekel"; parsin is the plural of parsu (Akkadian) "part," "half-mina." The first word, which is missing in the Vulgate, is repeated both to make the threat more solemn and to hint at the various meanings hidden in each term. Since these were coins or weights, signs representing them appeared on the wall and not words; this explains why the magicians could not decipher their meaning, their logical connection.

Here is the explanation (Dan. 5:26 ff.): ménē' = "numbered"; Daniel completes it: "God has numbered the days of your kingdom," to put an end to it. Tēgēl, taking only the consonants, can be read tēgēl as a past participle, "weighed": "you have been weighed"; and tēgēl from the root qālal "to be light": "and you have been found light." Finally the consonants alone of pērēs (the singular of parsin) also yield the passive participle pērēs "broken," "shattered": "your kingdom is shattered and given to the Medes and the Persians" (Pāras, again the same consonants). Thus from the names of the coins Daniel draws the three sentences of the terrible condemnation against Belshazzar.

Francesco Spadafora