And this is the interpretation of the message: MENE means that God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Parallel translations
- WEB This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God has counted your kingdom, and brought it to an end;
- KJV This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
- NKJV This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it;
- NASB This is the interpretation of the message: ‘Menē’—God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.
- NLT This is what these words mean: Mene means ‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
MENE means God has numbered the kingdom and brought it to an end. Belshazzar's reign is finished by divine decree.
Overview
Daniel interprets the first word as God's accounting of the kingdom's days, now complete. The sovereign God who grants kingdoms also sets their limits and ends them at the appointed time. Babylon's apparent permanence proves to be on a timetable fixed in heaven.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Jer 27:7All nations will serve him and his son and grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will enslave him.
- Isa 47:1–15“Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of Chaldea! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate.
- Jer 25:11–12And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
- Jer 50:1–46This is the word that the LORD spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans:
- Dan 9:2in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
- Isa 21:1–10This is the burden against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.
- Acts 15:18that have been known for ages.’
- Job 14:14When a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, until my renewal comes.
- Isa 13:1–14This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Daniel sees the stone cut without hands that shatters the kingdoms, and 'one like a son of man' given everlasting dominion — titles and visions Jesus claims as his own.
How Daniel 5:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.