CATCH OF THE DAY: If you're a fan of Sleepy Hollow on FOX, you know that the Bible (especially the Book of Revelation) inspires much of the plot. But, did you also know the Bible has inspired some of the dialogue as well?

In "For the Triumph of Evil," the Sandman is our monster du week. When Abbie and Ichabod confront him in the dream world, the Sandman says to Abbie:


This chill-inducing statement comes directly from the story of the writing on the wall, found in the Book of Daniel.

To summarize the story, King Belshazzar of Babylon uses the holy vessels from Solomon's Temple to praise false gods and throw a crazy house/palace party. God gets angry and sends disembodied fingers to write a message on the wall (creepy). No one can interpret the riddle, but they're pretty sure it's nothing good.

The prophet Daniel is brought in to translate, and he relays the warning:

"God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. 
You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."

That night, King Belshazzar dies and God is proven awesome. While the Bible doesn't explicitly state the cause of Belshazzar's death, we Sleepy Hollow fans can be pretty certain the Sandman made him do it.

In addition, the writing on the wall also has a more general connotation of imminent doom, which seems just about the right tone for one of the first few episodes Sleepy Hollow. 

If you're interested in reading the original story of the writing on the wall, a link to Chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel can be found here. It's the King James Bible, of course, because we're sure Ichabod would not approve of anything else.


Written by: Jacqueline 
Jacqueline is one half of the team at the helm of Red Herry, and the whole brain behind almost every fish pun you can find on this website. She is a fierce advocate for helmets, ice cream, and the Oxford Comma.
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