Bible Questions and Answer

"The writing on the wall" comes from Daniel 5. King Belshazzar of Babylon threw a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and while drinking, he ordered servants to bring the gold and silver cups that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. They drank from them and praised their gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone. Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster wall of the palace. The king turned pale and his knees knocked together. None of his wise men could read it. Daniel was called, and he read the words: "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin." He explained that God had numbered the days of Belshazzar's reign, weighed him and found him wanting, and divided his kingdom between the Medes and Persians. That very night, Belshazzar was killed. Today, "the writing is on the wall" means that signs clearly show something bad is about to happen.