¹⁶ They went out at noon, while ^(A)Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the ^[a]temporary shelters ^[b]with the thirty-two kings who helped him. ¹⁷ 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 army which followed them. ²⁰ They ^[c]killed each his man; and the Arameans fled and Israel pursued them, and Ben-hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with horsemen. ²¹ The king of Israel went out and ^[d]struck the horses and chariots, and ^[e]killed 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 emerged 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 king’s ^[b](C)face grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him, and his ^(D)hip joints went slack and his ^(E)knees began knocking together.

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