TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting;
Parallel translations
- WEB TEKEL; you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.
- KJV TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
- BSB TEKEL means that you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.
- NASB ‘Tekēl’—you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.
- NLT Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up.
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
TEKEL means the king has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. God's just assessment finds Belshazzar deficient.
Overview
Daniel interprets the second word as a weighing of the king's character against God's standard, where he falls short. The image of the scales conveys God's righteous and exact judgment of every person. It is a sobering reminder that all are measured by the Lord, and apart from grace, all are found lacking.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Job 31:6(let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity);
- 1 Cor 3:13each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is.
- Ps 62:9Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.
- Jer 6:30Men will call them rejected silver, because Yahweh has rejected them.”
- Ezek 22:18–20“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are brass, tin, iron, and lead in the middle of the furnace. They are the dross of silver.
- Matt 22:11–12But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing,
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 5:27 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.