Daniel 5:1-9

The Writing on the Wall 1King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. 2While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father Or ancestor; or predecessor; also in verses 11, 13 and 18 had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them.

4As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. 5Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote.

6His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.

7The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers Or Chaldeans; also in verse 11 and diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.” 8Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant.

9So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.