This is the interpretation of the thing - It may seem not to have been difficult to interpret the meaning of the communication, when one was able to read the words, or when the sense of the words was understood. But, if the words are placed together, and considered in their abstract form, the whole communication would be so enigmatical that the interpretation would not be likely to occur to anyone without a Divine guidance. This will appear more clearly by arranging the words together, as has been done by Hales:
MENE, number, MENE, number, TEKEL, weight, (PERES) (division) UPHARSIN, division. Or, as it is explained more accurately by Berholdt and Gesenius:
Mene, Numbered, Mene, Numbered, Tekel, Weighted, Upharsin. Divided. From this arrangement it will be at once seen that the interpretation proposed by Daniel was not one that would have been likely to have occurred to anyone.
Mene - מנא menê'. This word is a passive participle from מנה menâh - "to number, to review." - Gesenius, "Lex." The verb is also written מנא menâ' - Buxtorf, "Lex." It would be literally translated "numbered," and would apply to that of which an estimate was taken by counting. We use now an expression which would convey a similar idea, when we say of one that "his days are numbered;" that is, he has not long to live, or is about to die. The idea seems to be taken from the fact, that the duration of a man's life cannot usually be known, and in the general uncertainty we can form no correct estimate of it, but when he is old, or when he is dangerously sick, we feel that we can with some degree of probability number his days, since he cannot now live long. Such is the idea here, as explained by Daniel. All uncertainty about the duration of the kingdom was now removed, for, since the evil had come, an exact estimate of its whole duration - of the number of the years of its continuance - could be made. In the Greek of Theodotion there is no attempt to translate this word, and it is retained in Greek letters - Μανὴ Manē. So also in the Codex Chisianus and in the Latin Vulgate.
God hath numbered thy kingdom - The word which is used here, and rendered "numbered" - מנה menâh - is the verb of which the previous word is the participle. Daniel applies it to the "kingdom" or "reign" of the monarch, as being a thing of more importance than the life of the king himself. It is evident, if, according to the common interpretation of Dan 5:30, Belshazzar was slain that very night, it "might" have been applied to the king himself, meaning that his days were numbered, and that he was about to die. But this interpretation (see Notes) is not absolutely certain, and perhaps the fact that Daniel did not so apply the word may be properly regarded as one circumstance showing that such an interpretation is not necessary, though probably it is the correct one.
And finished it - This is not the meaning of the word "Mene," but is the explanation by Daniel of the thing intended. The word in its interpretation fairly implied that; or that might be understood from it. The fact that the "kingdom" in its duration was "numbered," properly expressed the idea that it was now to come to an end. It did actually then come to an end by being merged in that of the Medes and Persians. |