What is the meaning of Daniel 5:27? Immediate setting • Daniel 5 describes King Belshazzar’s blasphemous feast, where he used vessels from the Jerusalem temple while praising idols. • A mysterious hand wrote three Aramaic words—MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN—on the palace wall (Daniel 5:5-7). • Daniel, summoned to interpret the message, declares that God Himself is judging the king that very night (Daniel 5:22-24). • Verse 27 is the middle word of the inscription: “TEKEL means that you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient” (Daniel 5:27). TEKEL • “TEKEL” communicates divine assessment. God is not guessing; He is measuring. • Scripture often reveals God’s role as the righteous Weigher of people’s hearts—“All a man’s ways are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the motives” (Proverbs 16:2; also 1 Samuel 2:3). • Belshazzar’s arrogance, idolatry, and ignorance of God’s past dealings with his ancestor Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 5:18-23) are placed on God’s scales for true evaluation. Weighed on the scales • The image of scales highlights precise, fair judgment; nothing escapes the balance. • Job pleads, “Let Him weigh me with honest scales, and God will know my integrity” (Job 31:6). • Belshazzar assumes security inside Babylon’s massive walls, yet God silently weighs him at the very moment of revelry—a sobering reminder that divine judgment is not delayed by earthly fortifications (Hebrews 4:13). Found deficient • Once weighed, Belshazzar is declared lacking—his moral and spiritual “weight” does not reach God’s standard. • Psalm 62:9 notes that “men of high degree are a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are altogether lighter than a breath”. • Deficiency here is fatal, not fixable by wealth, power, or religious ritual; the verdict is immediate: “That very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain” (Daniel 5:30). • The same principle echoes in Revelation 3:2 where the risen Christ warns a church, “I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of My God”. Present application • God still weighs lives. Success, prestige, or popularity never tip His scales (Luke 16:15). • Only those clothed in Christ’s righteousness stand complete before Him (2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9). • TEKEL urges believers to pursue daily faithfulness—living “worthy of the calling you have received” (Ephesians 4:1)—because our service will also pass through Christ’s evaluation (1 Corinthians 3:13-15). summary Daniel 5:27 declares that the living God weighs every life with perfect accuracy. “TEKEL” warned Belshazzar that he had been measured and found wanting, and judgment swiftly followed. The same unchanging God still examines hearts today, but He offers the fullness we lack through the finished work of His Son, inviting us to walk in integrity and readiness rather than risk being pronounced deficient when weighed on His eternal scales. |
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