TEKEL: as indicated in the Good News Translation rendering, this word means “weigh” or “weight,” depending on whether it is taken as a verb or a noun. Here it is taken as a verb, with God once again as the intended subject.

You have been weighed in the balances: if this passive and the one in the following expression have to be made active, God should certainly be the subject of the verb. It is God who examines Belshazzar and reaches the conclusion that there is something lacking. The idea of balances may be foreign to some cultures, but there is probably some kind of rough equivalent that can be used here. Within the commercial system of most groups, there is a system of measuring weight or quantity that can be employed here.

And found wanting: on the passive formulation, see above. Some possible models are “he (or God) has seen that you are insignificant,” or “he has determined that you are incompetent,” or “he has decided that you are inadequate to rule.” If it is desirable to retain the metaphor in the receptor language, translators may consider “he saw that you weighed too little” or “he found that you were not heavy enough.”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René & Ellington, John. A Handbook on Daniel. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .