^11 (A)Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.

¹⁹ And I saw ^(A)the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies ^(B)gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. ²⁰ And the beast was captured, and with it ^(C)the false prophet ^(D)who in its presence^[a] had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who ^(E)worshiped its image. These two were ^(F)thrown alive into the lake of ^(G)fire that burns with sulfur. ²¹ And the rest were slain by the sword ^(H)that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and ^(I)all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

²⁴ For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, ^(A)brought no little business to the craftsmen. ^25 (B)These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. ²⁶ And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, ^(C)saying that ^(D)gods made with hands are not gods. ²⁷ And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the ^(E)great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”

²⁸ When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, ^(F)“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ²⁹ So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and ^(G)Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's ^(H)companions in travel. ³⁰ But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. ³¹ And even some of the Asiarchs,^[a] who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. ^32 (I)Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. ³³ Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, ^(J)motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. ³⁴ But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, ^(K)“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

The Handwriting on the Wall

5 ^(A)King Belshazzar ^(B)made a great feast for a thousand of his ^(C)lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.

^2 (D)Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that ^(E)the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father^[a] had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. ³ Then they brought in ^(F)the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. ⁴ They drank wine and ^(G)praised the ^(H)gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

^5 (I)Immediately ^(J)the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw ^(K)the hand as it wrote. ^6 (L)Then the king's color changed, ^(M)and his thoughts alarmed him; ^(N)his limbs gave way, and ^(O)his knees knocked together.

Nebuchadnezzar's Golden Image

3 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits^[a] and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on ^(A)the plain of Dura, in ^(B)the province of Babylon. ² Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather ^(C)the satraps, the prefects, and ^(D)the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. ³ Then ^(E)the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. ⁴ And the herald ^(F)proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O ^(G)peoples, nations, and languages, ⁵ that when you hear the ^(H)sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you ^(I)are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. ⁶ And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately ^(J)be cast into a burning fiery furnace.” ⁷ Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all ^(K)the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.