1. Belshatzar the king made a mishteh gadol (great feast) to a thousand of his nobles, and drank wine before the thousand.
2. Belshatzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his forefather Nevuchadnetzar had taken out of the Beis Hamikdash which was in Yerushalayim, that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
3. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the Beis Hamikdash of the Beis HaElohim which was at Yerushalayim, and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.
4. They drank wine, and praised the g-ds of gold, and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
5. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's yad (hand), and wrote opposite the menorah upon the plaster of the wall of the king's heikhal, and the king saw the part of the yad that wrote.
6. Then the king's countenance was changed, and his machsh'vot troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosed, and his knees knocked together.
7. The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Kasdim (Chaldeans), and the soothsayers. And the king spoke, and said to the chachamim of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this mikhtav (writing), and show me the pesher (interpretation, explanation) thereof, shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the malchut.
8. Then came in all the king's chachamim, but they could not read the mikhtav (writing), nor make known to the king the pesher (interpretation, explanation) thereof.
9. Then was king Belshatzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his nobles were perplexed.