1. Bĕlshatstsar the sovereign made a great feast for a thousand of his great men, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand.
2. While tasting the wine, Bĕlshatstsar gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar had taken from the Hĕḵal which had been in Yerushalayim, that the sovereign and his great men, his wives, and his concubines could drink from them.
3. Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the Hĕḵal of the House of Elah which had been in Yerushalayim. And the sovereign and his great men, his wives, and his concubines drank out of them.
4. They drank wine, and praised the elahin of gold, and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood and of stone.
5. At that moment the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the sovereign’s palace. And the sovereign saw the part of the hand that wrote.
6. Then the sovereign’s colour changed, and his thoughts alarmed him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other.
7. The sovereign called loudly to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the diviners. The sovereign spoke and said to the wise ones of Baḇel, “Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, is robed in purple and has a chain of gold around his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the reign.”
8. So all the sovereign’s wise ones came, but they were unable to read the writing, or to make known its interpretation to the sovereign.
9. Then Sovereign Bĕlshatstsar was greatly alarmed, and his colour changed, and his great men were puzzled.
10. The sovereigness, because of the words of the sovereign and his great men, came to the banquet hall. And the sovereigness spoke and said, “O sovereign, live forever! Do not let your thoughts alarm you, nor let your colour change.
11. “There is a man in your reign in whom is the Spirit of the Set-apart Elah. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the elahin, were found in him. And Sovereign Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar your father, your father the sovereign, made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and diviners,