When sales fell for a third year, the staff saw the writing on the wall.
the writing on the wall
idiomA clear sign that something, especially failure or disaster, is on its way.
Origin
The phrase comes from the Book of Daniel. At a feast in Babylon, King Belshazzar drinks wine from the sacred vessels his father had looted from the temple in Jerusalem, and a disembodied hand appears and writes four words on the plaster of the palace wall. None of the king's astrologers can read them.
Daniel is summoned and gives the interpretation: the words — mene, mene, tekel, upharsin — mean that God has numbered the days of Belshazzar's reign, weighed him, and found him wanting; his kingdom will be handed to the Medes and Persians. That same night Babylon falls and the king is killed (Daniel 5).
In English, the writing on the wall settled into its modern sense some centuries later: an unmistakable sign that disaster is coming — the warning everyone but the doomed party can already read. A struggling company is said to have seen the writing on the wall long before it folded.
Long before the plant actually closed, the writing on the wall was there for anyone who cared to look.
Executives who ignore the writing on the wall — flat revenue, restless investors, a founder heading for the door — rarely get a second warning.
The rise and fall of kings and the warnings of the prophets.
- 01
David and Goliath (idiom)
A contest in which a much weaker underdog faces a far stronger opponent.
- 02
feet of clay (idiom)
In someone apparently strong and without failings, a hidden weakness which could lead to downfall.
- 03
a drop in the bucket (idiom)
A quantity so small it is negligible next to what is actually needed.
- 04
a leopard cannot change its spots (idiom)
People rarely change their fundamental nature, however much they may seem to.
- 05
how the mighty have fallen (idiom)
A remark on the dramatic downfall of someone once powerful or admired.
- 06
a still small voice (idiom)
A quiet inner prompting of conscience or intuition.