1. Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand.
2. While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar commanded that they bring in the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which was in Jerusalem, so that the king, and his officials, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.
3. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem. And the king and his officials, his wives and his concubines drank from them.
4. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
5. Immediately fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. And the king saw the back of the hand that wrote.
6. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees struck against one another.
7. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever shall read this writing and show me its interpretation shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about 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, nor make known to the king its interpretation.
9. Then King Belshazzar was greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his nobles were astonished.
10. Now the queen came into the banquet house because of the words of the king and his nobles. And the queen spoke and said, “O king, live forever. Do not let your thoughts trouble you, or let your countenance be changed.