Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Daniel 5:27 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 27. 27TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Daniel 5:27 develops this movement with “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting”.
Read It With
- Daniel 5:25–28
Read Daniel 5:27 with 5:25–28. Daniel 5:27 develops this movement with “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting”. The complete unit establishes this movement: Daniel reads the three terms as judgment: the reign is numbered, the king weighed and lacking, and the kingdom divided to Medes and Persians.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The riddle uses weight and coin language, wordplay, and passive judgment to reverse the king's claim that wealth and rank control interpretation. “The Inscription Announces Numbering, Weighing, and Division” opens that larger movement. This completes the present movement before the next larger development: The king clothes Daniel and proclaims him third; that night Belshazzar is killed and Darius receives the kingdom. Within that movement: Daniel 5:27 develops this movement with “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting”.
Follow the Context
- Daniel reads the three terms as judgment: the reign is numbered, the king weighed and lacking, and the kingdom divided to Medes and Persians.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting”
In plain language: This wording develops this movement.
Daniel reads the three terms as judgment: the reign is numbered, the king weighed and lacking, and the kingdom divided to Medes and Persians. Daniel 5:27 develops this movement with “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting”.
Why it matters: This wording carries a material lexical, historical, theological, reception, or misuse boundary.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
Daniel 5:27 does not stand alone from Daniel 5:25–28. Daniel 5:27 does not establish a modern identification, date, guarantee, or command by itself. Its verse-specific role is: develops this movement with “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting”.
What Remains True
Power and prestige remain subject to moral evaluation, and wealth cannot purchase exemption from an ending. Daniel 5:25-28 keeps that truth tied to this claim: Daniel reads the three terms as judgment: the reign is numbered, the king weighed and lacking, and the kingdom divided to Medes and Persians. In this unit: Daniel 5:27 develops this movement with “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting”.
How It Can Shape Life
- Use measurable standards to evaluate leaders while distinguishing failed conduct from a person's intrinsic dignity. In Daniel 5:25-28, respond specifically to this movement: Daniel reads the three terms as judgment: the reign is numbered, the king weighed and lacking, and the kingdom divided to Medes and Persians. For Daniel 5:27 specifically, keep this reviewed contribution in view: develops this movement with “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting”. Read it inside 5:25–28; do not convert its wording into an unsupported modern identification.
Teach It Back
Explain Daniel 5:27's role in 5:25–28. Name the ancient setting, quote or paraphrase “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting”, state one material uncertainty, and name one conclusion the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Daniel 5:25-28 — The Inscription Announces Numbering, Weighing, and DivisionSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Daniel 5:27 must be read with this unit-level uncertainty: Interpreters dispute the exact written form, whether the specialists could read but not interpret it, the weight sequence, and how early the Persian wordplay arose. The given interpretation controls the story.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Daniel 5:25-28, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew aramaic text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Daniel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew-Aramaic wording, morphology, language boundary, names, repeated roots, clauses, and lexical controls.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Dan.xml, 5:25-28; Hebrew 1:1–2:4a and 8:1–12:13, Aramaic 2:4b–7:28
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Daniel with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew-Aramaic, textual, historical, translation, chronology, angelic-language, and duration notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Daniel PDF, printed pp. 1653–1655, translation and translator notes on 5:25-28
Open source ↗