The Writing on the Wall

As Jekyll describes a particular incident in his experience with Hyde in chapter 10, he says it seemed “like the Babylonian finger on the wall, to be spelling out the letters of my judgment,” which will sound familiar to those who have read DANIEL 5:1-31, wherein “the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote…on the plaster of the wall” of the evil King Belshazzar’s palace (v. 5). The king summoned Daniel to interpret the writing, which he did. “…this is the inscription that was written:
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom…” (vv. 25-28, 30-31). As Jekyll notes, the finger did, indeed, spell out the letters of judgment.