What is the context?
Daniel reads the inscription and gives its meaning. God has numbered the king’s reign and brought it to an end; the king has been weighed and found deficient; his kingdom is being given to the Medes and Persians.
The message uses a play on words. The Aramaic terms also belong to the language of weights: מְנֵא, mene (meh-NAY), names a mina, and פְּרֵס, peres (peh-RACE), probably a half-mina; see Brown–Driver–Briggs on mene and peres. Daniel explains the words through numbering, weighing and dividing.
The meaning is therefore much more than a puzzling list. The king’s rule has a limit, his conduct has been judged, and the power he possessed is passing to others.
How is this passage commonly understood?
The USCCB notes and Cambridge explain the weight terms and the play on words in Daniel’s interpretation. Both also note the connection between the final term and the name of the Persians. The explanation in verses 26–28 gives the message its force.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.