Idioms: “The Writing on the Wall”

Belshazzar’s Feast (Rembrandt, 1635)

Idioms, also known as idiomatic phrases, are extremely important to understand a culture; more so than understanding a language. These cultural expressions can be very confusing for somebody outside the cultural environment. Idioms hence tend to confuse those not already familiar with them. Students of a new language must learn its idiomatic expressions the same way they learn its other vocabulary.

For example, he really threw me a curve when on our first date, he asked if I could pay for the dinner. In some cultures, when a man and a woman are courting each other, the male is traditionally the one who pays the bill; however, times change and in many modern societies, a lot of couples go Dutch (yet another idiom).

The most common idioms have deep roots, dating back many centuries, and can be traced across many languages. Many have translations in other languages, and tend to become international. Others only have a meaning in a tight specific group of people. As cultures are typically localized, idioms are more often not useful outside of that local context.

For today’s post I’ve selected the idiomatic phrase, “The writing on the wall.” This expression is buried deep inside the pages of time. The writing on the wall (or sometimes “handwriting on the wall”) is an expression which suggests a presage of doom or misfortune; the end of an organization or activity. It originates in the Biblical book of Daniel—where supernatural writing foretells the demise of the Babylonian Empire, but it has come to have a wide usage in language and literature.

According to the Holy Bible, during a drunken feast, King Belshazzar of Babylon employed sacred golden and silver vessels, which had been removed from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem by his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar. Using these holy items, the King and his court praised “the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone”.

Belshazzar and his guest committed blasphemy by drinking out sacred vessels and praising gods other than the lord. Immediately, out of nowhere, the disembodied fingers of a human hand appeared before them and wrote on a wall of the royal palace the words מנא ,מנא, תקל, ופרסין (Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin).

The characters were in Hebrew, a language unfamiliar to the King of Babylon; so he called his astrologers, the Chal-de’-ans and soothsayers. Despite various incentives, none of the royal magicians or advisors could interpret the omen. The king became frustrated that the meaning of the writing couldn’t be understood; then the Queen suggested he request the assistance of a man named Daniel.

The King sends for Daniel, an exiled Jew, taken himself from Jerusalem, who had served in high office under Nebuchadnezzar. Rejecting offers of reward, Daniel warns the King of the folly of his arrogant blasphemy before reading the text.

And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE (literally a “monetary toll”), God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL (literally a “tokenary weight”), you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; PARSIN (literally a “division” or “portion”), your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

That very night King Belshazzar is killed, and Darius the Mede becomes King. (This reflects the historically verifiable defeat and division of the Babylonian Empire by Persia).

In conclusion, the phrase “the writing on the wall” has come to signify an omen of doom—or the end of an organization or activity. To attribute to someone the ability to “read the writing on the wall” has come to signify the ability to foresee (not necessarily supernaturally) an inevitable decline and end.

I recently commented with my friend, Don Ray of Chiriqui Chatter, that I saw the writing on the wall regarding the anarchic prices of gasoline everywhere. If this trend of high gasoline prices continues, in my opinion, it will be the end of fossil fuels which would be eventually substituted by other forms of energy.

And now you know another idiomatic phrase commonly used in the United States. Good Day!