³¹ While the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came down from heaven: “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: The kingdom is taken from you!^(A)

⁷ And I heard the altar respond,

³ Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.^{(A) 4} He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”^{(B) 5} He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’^(A)

¹⁷ And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved,^[a] with whom I am well pleased.”^(A)

³ When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape!^(A)

²² The people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a mortal!” ²³ And immediately, because he had not given the glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.^(A)

²⁸ Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”^(A)

²⁸ peres:^[a] your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

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

The Writing on the Wall

⁵ Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall of the royal palace, next to the lampstand. The king was watching the hand as it wrote.^(B)