O texto aqui escrito {se lê}: MENÊ, TEQUEL e PERÊS.
Daniel 5:25
Comentário de Albert Barnes
And this is the writing that was written – The Babylonians, it would seem, were unacquainted with the “characters” that were used, and of course unable to understand the meaning. See Daniel 5: 8 . The first thing, therefore, for Daniel to do was to read the writing, and this he was able to do without difficulty, probably, as already remarked, because it was in the ancient Hebrew character – a character quite familiar to him, though not known to the Babylonians, whom Belshazzar consulted. It is every way probable that that character “would” be used on an occasion like this, for
(a) it is manifest that it was intended that the true God, the God of the Hebrews, should be made known, and this was the character in which his communications had been made to men;
(b) it was clearly the design to honor his own religion, and it is morally certain that there would be something which would show the connection between this occurrence and his own agency, and nothing would do this better than to make use of such a character; e
(c) it was the Divine intention to put honor on Daniel, and this would be well done by making use of a character which he understood.
There have been, indeed, many conjectures respecting the characters which were employed on this occasion, and the reasons of the difficulty of interpreting the words used, but it is most probable that the above is the true statement, and this will relieve all the difficulties in regard to the account. Prideaux supposes that the characters employed were the ancient Phoenician characters, that were used by the Hebrews, and that are found now in the Samaritan Pentateuch; and that, as above suggested, these might be unknown to the Babylonians, though familiar to Daniel. Others have supposed that the characters were those in common use in Babylon, and that the reason why the Babylonians could not read them was, that they were smitten with a sudden blindness, like the inhabitants of Sodom, Gênesis 19:11 . The Talmudists suppose that the words were written in a cabalistic manner, in which certain letters were used to stand for other letters, on the principle referred to by Buxtorf (“Lex. Chal. Rabb. et Talm.” p. 248), and known as ????? ‘a^thebbash – that is, where the alphabet is reversed, and the Hebrew letter ? (a) is used for the Hebrew letter ? (T), and the Hebrew letter ? (B) for the Hebrew letter ? (S), etc., and that on account of this cabalistic transmutation the Babylonians could not read it, though Daniel might have been familiar with that mode of writing. rabbi Jochanan supposed that there was a change of the order in which the letters of the words were written; other rabbis, that there was a change merely in the order of the first and second letters; others, that the words were written backward; others that the words were written, not in the usual horizontal manner, but perpendicularly; and others, that the words were not written in full, but that only the first letters of each were written. See Bertholdt, pp. 349,350. All these are mere conjectures, and most of them are childish and improbable suppositions. There is no real difficulty in the case if we suppose that the words were written in a character familiar to Daniel, but not familiar to the Babylonians. Or, if this is not admitted, then we may suppose that some mere marks were employed whose signification was made known to Daniel in a miraculous manner.
Comentário de Thomas Coke
Daniel 5:25 . MENE, etc. – Essas palavras são totalmente explicadas por Daniel nos seguintes versículos. A palavra Mene é dobrada, para mostrar que a coisa é certa e estabelecida por Deus; como Joseph disse ao faraó em um caso semelhante.
Comentário de Adam Clarke
E esta é a escrita – Se as palavras tivessem sido escritas no caráter caldeu, todo homem sábio ali, todo mundo que pudesse ler o alfabeto de sua própria língua, poderia tê-las lido e interpretado. Seja observado, –
- Que o personagem que agora chamamos de hebraico é o personagem caldeu.
Estabelecerei as palavras nos dois caracteres, pelas quais o leitor menos instruído pode ver que é bem possível que um seja bem conhecido, enquanto o outro pode ser ininteligível.
Nos tempos antigos, sem dúvida, essas cartas diferiam mais umas das outras do que parecem fazer agora; pois sabemos que o samaritano em moedas antigas, embora radicalmente o mesmo, difere muito do que agora é usado na impressão.
Deve-se observar que cada palavra representa uma frase curta; Men? mene significa numeração ; Categoria : Pesagem; e ??? peres , divisão. E assim o árabe os traduz mokeeson , medido; mewzonon , pesado; mokesoomon , dividido. Todas as versões antigas, exceto a siríaca, leem simplesmente as palavras Mene, Tekel, Phares, conforme explicadas nos versículos seguintes; sem a repetição de Mene, e sem a conjunção ? vau e terminação plural, ?? in , em Peres.
Comentário de E.W. Bullinger
MENE, MENE = NUMERADO, NUMERADO. Figura de linguagem Epizeuxis (App-6), para grande ênfase. Chaldee. mene “, mene ” = numerado [sim] terminou. Veja nota em Jeremias 27: 7 .
TEKEL = PESADO. Chaldee. tekel (compare hebraico. shekel . App-51.)
UPPHARSIN = E DIVIDIDO (ou QUEBRADO). Chaldee. upharsin (o ” u “ é a conjunção = e), de Chaldee. paras = quebrar. Veja nota em Daniel 4:27 . Há uma referência adicional, pela figura do discurso Syllepsis (ou combinação), App-6, aos persas, pelos quais o reino da Babilônia foi dividido.
Comentário de John Calvin
Daniel aqui explica esses quatro versículos que foram escritos na parede. O rei não pôde lê-los, nem por estupor, nem porque Deus embotou todos os seus sentidos e cegou os olhos, como foi dito anteriormente. O mesmo deve ser dito dos magos e adivinhos, pois eles poderiam ter lido, se não tivessem ficado cegos. Primeiro, Daniel recita as quatro palavras Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsn e depois acrescenta sua interpretação. Ele repete a palavra Mene duas vezes. Some conjecture this to apply to the numbering of the years of the king’s life, and also to the time of his reign; but the guess seems to be without any foundation. I think the word is used twice for the sake of confirmation; as if the Prophet meant the number to be completed, since men usually allow calculations to be liable to error. To impress upon Belshazzar that his ‘life and kingdom were at stake, God affirms the number to be complete, meaning, not a moment of time can be added to the boundary already determined. So also Daniel himself interprets it: God, says he, has numbered thy kingdom; implying, God has appointed and prescribed a fixed end to thy kingdom; hence it must necessarily come to an end, since its period is fulfilled.
Although God here addresses but one king by the writing set before his eyes, we may still gather this general instruction — God has prescribed a certain time for all kingdoms. ( Job 14:5 .) The Scripture bears the same witness concerning the life of each of us. If God has prescribed to each of us the length of his life, surely this applies more forcibly to public empires, of so much greater importance. Hence we may know how not only kings live and die according to God’s pleasure, but even empires are changed, as we have formerly said. He fixes alike their origin and their destiny. Hence we may seek consolation, when we see tyrants rushing on so impetuously, and indulging their lust and cruelty without moderation. When, therefore, they rush on, as if they would mingle heaven and earth, let us remember this instruction, Their years are numbered! God knows how long they are to rage; He is not deceived; He knows whether it is useful to the Church and his elect, for tyrants to prevail for a time. By and bye he will surely restrain them, but since he determined the number of their days from the beginning, the time of his vengeance is not yet quite at hand, while he allows them a little longer to abuse without restraint the power and the sway which he had divinely granted them.