Daniel 5:8-10

Amplified Bible

⁸Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not ^[a]read the writing or reveal to the king its interpretation. ⁹Then King Belshazzar was greatly perplexed, his face became even paler, and his nobles were bewildered and alarmed.

¹⁰Now the queen [mother], overhearing the [excited] words of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet area. The queen [mother] spoke and said, “O king, live forever! Do not be alarmed at your thoughts or let your face be changed.

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Footnotes

Daniel 5:8 In light of what Daniel says in v 25, it is hard to escape the conclusion that for some reason the letters were unreadable to the wise men. The ancient rabbis speculated that the words were written in some kind of code that had to be deciphered. Among the suggestions were reversing the order of the letters (e.g. ENM for MENE etc.) and an elaborate puzzle in which the letters of each word were separated and spread out to form three senseless words: “MMTUS NNKFE EELRN” (“M...N...E” etc.).