⁴⁹ At this, all Adonijah’s guests rose in alarm and dispersed.

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

⁵ Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. ⁶ His face turned pale^(C) and he was so frightened^(D) that his legs became weak^(E) and his knees were knocking.^(F)