THE VISION OF BELSHAZZAR
By Lord Byron
Note.—According to the account given in the fifth chapter of Daniel, Belshazzar was the last king of Babylon, and the son of the great king Nebuchadnezzar, who had destroyed Jerusalem and taken the Jewish people captive to Babylon. The dramatic incident with which the second stanza of Byron’s poem deals is thus described:
“In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.”
After all the Babylonian wise men had tried in vain to read the writing, the “captive in the land,” Daniel, was sent for, and he interpreted the mystery.
“And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
“This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
“TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.