4. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
5. Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote.
6. Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.
7. The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”
8. Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation.
9. Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed.
10. The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, “O king, live forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change.
11. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him, and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers,