Daniel 5:17-31
New King James Version
17 Then Daniel answered, and said before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another; yet I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation. 18 O king, (A)the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your [a]father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. 19 And because of the majesty that He gave him, (B)all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he (C)executed; whomever he wished, he kept alive; whomever he wished, he set up; and whomever he wished, he put down. 20 (D)But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. 21 Then he was (E)driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, (F)till he [b]knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses.
22 “But you his son, Belshazzar, (G)have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. 23 (H)And you have [c]lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the (I)vessels of [d]His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, (J)which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand (K)and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. 24 Then the [e]fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written.
25 “And this is the inscription that was written:
[f]MENE, MENE, [g]TEKEL, [h]UPHARSIN.
26 This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; 27 TEKEL: (L)You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; 28 PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the (M)Medes and (N)Persians.”[i] 29 Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him (O)that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
Belshazzar’s Fall
30 (P)That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. 31 (Q)And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Daniel 5:18 Or ancestor
- Daniel 5:21 Recognized
- Daniel 5:23 Exalted
- Daniel 5:23 The temple
- Daniel 5:24 Lit. palm
- Daniel 5:25 Lit. a mina (50 shekels) from the verb “to number”
- Daniel 5:25 Lit. a shekel from the verb “to weigh”
- Daniel 5:25 Lit. and half-shekels from the verb “to divide”; pl. of Peres, v. 28
- Daniel 5:28 Aram. Paras, consonant with Peres
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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