4. As they were drinking, they praised their gods, which were made from gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
5. Suddenly the fingers of a person’s hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote.
6. King Belshazzar was very frightened. His face turned white, his knees knocked together, and he could not stand up because his legs were too weak.
7. The king called for the magicians, wise men, and wizards of Babylon and said to them, “Anyone who can read this writing and explain it will receive purple clothes fit for a king and a gold chain around his neck. And I will make that person the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
8. Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant.