Bible Strands
Daniel 5:27
TEKEL means that you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Daniel speaks to King Belshazzar during a royal feast when a disembodied hand inscribes a message on the palace wall.
The words — The Aramaic noun תְּקֵ֑ל (teqel) and its verbal form תְּקִ֥ילְתָּה (teqiltah) literally mean "you have been weighed" on the scales (מֹֽאזַנְיָ֖א, mōzanayā).
The thread — The weighing motif appears in Job 31:6 to test integrity, Psalms 62:9 to show the instability of human status, and 1 Corinthians 3:13 where fire reveals the quality of a builder's work.
Why it lands — The verse declares the king's reign has been measured and found deficient, requiring the reader to acknowledge divine judgment over human power.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
Cross-references
- Job 31:6 let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity.
- Psalms 62:9 Lowborn men are but a vapor; the exalted are but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
- 1 Corinthians 3:13 his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.
- Jeremiah 6:30 They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”
- Ezekiel 22:18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace; they are but the dross of silver.
- Matthew 22:11 But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes.