4. As they drank wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
5. At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. The king was watching the back of the hand that was writing.
6. Then all the color drained from the king’s face and he became alarmed. The joints of his hips gave way, and his knees began knocking together.
7. The king called out loudly to summon the astrologers, wise men, and diviners. The king proclaimed to the wise men of Babylon that anyone who could read this inscription and disclose its interpretation would be clothed in purple and have a golden collar placed on his neck and be third ruler in the kingdom.
8. So all the king’s wise men came in, but they were unable to read the writing or to make known its interpretation to the king.
9. Then King Belshazzar was very terrified, and he was visibly shaken. His nobles were completely dumbfounded.
10. Due to the noise caused by the king and his nobles, the queen mother then entered the banquet room. She said, “O king, live forever! Don’t be alarmed! Don’t be shaken!