¹⁴ If you will ^(A)fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. ¹⁵ But ^(B)if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then ^(C)the hand of the Lord will be against you and ^(D)your king.^[a]

¹⁸ O king, the ^(A)Most High God ^(B)gave ^(C)Nebuchadnezzar your father ^(D)kingship and greatness and glory and majesty.

²² And you his son,^{[a] (A)}Belshazzar, ^(B)have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this,

²³ but you have lifted up yourself against ^(A)the Lord of heaven. And ^(B)the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. ^(C)And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, ^(D)but the God in whose hand is your breath, and ^(E)whose are all your ways, ^(F)you have not honored.

²⁴ “Then from his presence ^(G)the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. ²⁵ And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. ²⁶ This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered^[a] the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;

⁴ for ^(A)he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, ^(B)an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also ^(C)for the sake of conscience. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.