¹⁶ And they went out at noon, while ^(A)Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the booths ^[a]with the thirty-two kings who helped him. ¹⁷ And the young men of the rulers of the provinces went out first; and Ben-hadad sent out and they told him, saying, “Men have come out from Samaria.” ^18 (B)Then he said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive.”

¹⁹ So these went out from the city, the young men of the rulers of the provinces, and the military force which followed them. ²⁰ And they each struck his man; and the Arameans fled and Israel pursued them, and Ben-hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with horsemen. ²¹ And the king of Israel went out and struck down the horses and chariots, and struck the Arameans with a great slaughter.

⁴ They ^(A)drank the wine and praised the gods of ^(B)gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

⁵ Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand came out and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the ^[a]back of the hand that did the writing. ⁶ Then the ^[b](C)splendor of the king’s face changed, and his thoughts alarmed him, and his ^(D)hip joints ^[c]went slack, and his ^(E)knees were knocking against each other.

³⁰ That same night ^(A)Belshazzar the Chaldean king was ^(B)killed.