Handwriting on the wall. According to a Bible story (Dan. 5:1-31), the Babylonian ruler Belshazzar, during a banquet, saw the fingers of a man’s hand writing the Aramaic words mene, mene, tekel, upharsin on his palace wall. None of Belshazzar’s wise men could interpret the meaning of the words. Daniel, the Jewish prophet, said the words meant that God had weighed Belshazzar and his kingdom and had found them wanting, and would destroy them. The phrase handwriting on the wall now means impending disaster or misfortune.
