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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 274. Tthe idiom today is the writing on

  • the wall. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. This idiom could also be

  • rephrased as the handwriting on the wall or the writing is on the wall. So there are

  • actually three ways you could say it . You can say the writing on the wall. The

  • handwriting is on the wall or just the writing is on the wall. So you might hear

  • it all three ways. Okay. Let's continue The idiom means that there are some very

  • clear signs that something bad is likely to happen in the near future. Okay. The

  • origin of this phrase comes directly from the Bible. So it's a Bible story.

  • According to the story, a great feast was being held for King Belshazzar. Okay. The

  • king had often sinned and he was taking part in drunk revelry. You know, partying

  • and disrespecting the sacred... sacred meaning like holy wine goblets. Like, like

  • these cups I guess they were supposedly , maybe they should have been used

  • for religious purposes. But you know, he was just drinking and getting drunk from

  • them so the goblets in a ... in a profane way. So in a very disrespectful way. Even

  • though, I'm sure there's a lot more than than this. Suddenly a mysterious

  • disembodied hand appeared. So a hand by itself no body. Disembodied means not

  • having a body. You know, it reminds you of .. you a little bit about you know the old TV

  • show "The Addams Family. " Remember there used to be a hand that ran around on its

  • own. Well that's, that's what this is a disembodied hand just appeared and

  • started writing on the wall. Yeah. That's enough to really scare you or kind of

  • freaked somebody out today. If you just seen a hand by itself writing on the

  • wall. But anyway, a mysterious disembodied hand appeared and wrote some

  • words on the wall. Okay. And they, they couldn't really make sense of it so the

  • king called for Daniel you know this is Daniel from the

  • Book of Daniel in the Bible. So remember he was able to interpret dreams and

  • stuff. So he was also able to interpret this for the king. Okay. He was asked to

  • interpret the words. And he told the king it was a sign of his coming downfall. So

  • that you know, his end was coming soon. Later that same night, the king was

  • killed and Darius of Persia took control of his kingdom. So this is the idea where

  • the writing is on the wall. So it's already there. It's already set. You know,

  • nothing you could do about it. That's it. That's your fate. That's your destiny.

  • Whatever oh really in this case it really should be your fate. That's what's

  • coming. So it's probably too late to reverse it. Okay. Good. So let's look at

  • how we might use it. We have a couple of examples here how we use this phrase

  • today. Bob could see the writing on the wall. There were too many signs his

  • present company was going bankrupt or at least they may go bankrupt. So he decided

  • to look for another job before he went down with the ship. So if he waited too

  • late he'd probably lose his job right away. And he wouldn't you know, probably

  • take him a long time to find another job so he started looking now he didn't want

  • to go down with the ship. So he could see the writing on the wall. He said then I

  • got to prepare before time. This , this company's not going to be around that

  • much longer. Okay. Number two here. We could say we've kind of used this

  • example for other phrases too. Albert Einstein could see the writing on the

  • wall, but it's actually perfect here. After Hitler took power and he decided

  • to leave Germany before the Nazis gained too much power and it would be too late

  • for him. So yeah he could see the writing on the wall. He could see, if I stay here,

  • forget it. You know, they're probably going to come after me. Because of course we

  • all know Albert Einstein was a German Jew. So they would have went ... probably

  • would have eventually went after him . I don't think they would have made an

  • exception for him. He could see the writing on the wall. So he got out before

  • it was too late. Anyway,, I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your

  • time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 274. Tthe idiom today is the writing on

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