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35 “The sword of destruction will strike the Babylonians,”
    says the Lord.
“It will strike the people of Babylon—
    her officials and wise men, too.

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“Now, O sword of the Lord,
    when will you be at rest again?
Go back into your sheath;
    rest and be still.

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War will swirl through their cities;
    their enemies will crash through their gates.
They will destroy them,
    trapping them in their own evil plans.

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30 That very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian[a] king, was killed.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 5:30a Or Chaldean.
  2. 5:30b The Persians and Medes conquered Babylon in October 539 B.c.

The king shouted for the enchanters, astrologers,[a] and fortune-tellers to be brought before him. He said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever can read this writing and tell me what it means will be dressed in purple robes of royal honor and will have a gold chain placed around his neck. He will become the third highest ruler in the kingdom!”

But when all the king’s wise men had come in, none of them could read the writing or tell him what it meant.

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Footnotes

  1. 5:7 Or Chaldeans; also in 5:11.

The Writing on the Wall

Many years later King Belshazzar gave a great feast for 1,000 of his nobles, and he drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking the wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor,[a] Nebuchadnezzar, had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to drink from them with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.

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Footnotes

  1. 5:2 Aramaic father; also in 5:11, 13, 18.

57 I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
    along with her captains, officers, and warriors.
They will fall asleep
    and never wake up again!”
says the King, whose name is
    the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

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17 “What sorrow awaits this worthless shepherd
    who abandons the flock!
The sword will cut his arm
    and pierce his right eye.
His arm will become useless,
    and his right eye completely blind.”

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this message came to me from the Lord:

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39 And while they lie inflamed with all their wine,
    I will prepare a different kind of feast for them.
I will make them drink until they fall asleep,
    and they will never wake up again,”
    says the Lord.

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30 Her young men will fall in the streets and die.
    Her soldiers will all be killed,”
    says the Lord.

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27 Destroy even her young bulls—
    it will be terrible for them, too!
Slaughter them all!
    For Babylon’s day of reckoning has come.

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Who would not fear you, O King of nations?
    That title belongs to you alone!
Among all the wise people of the earth
    and in all the kingdoms of the world,
    there is no one like you.

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These wise teachers will fall
    into the trap of their own foolishness,
for they have rejected the word of the Lord.
    Are they so wise after all?

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16 The Lord will punish the world by fire
    and by his sword.
He will judge the earth,
    and many will be killed by him.

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13 All the advice you receive has made you tired.
    Where are all your astrologers,
those stargazers who make predictions each month?
    Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds.
14 But they are like straw burning in a fire;
    they cannot save themselves from the flame.
You will get no help from them at all;
    their hearth is no place to sit for warmth.

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25 I expose the false prophets as liars
    and make fools of fortune-tellers.
I cause the wise to give bad advice,
    thus proving them to be fools.

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25 “But I have stirred up a leader who will approach from the north.
    From the east he will call on my name.
I will give him victory over kings and princes.
    He will trample them as a potter treads on clay.

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14 Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites
    with amazing wonders.
The wisdom of the wise will pass away,
    and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.”

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11 What fools are the officials of Zoan!
    Their best counsel to the king of Egypt is stupid and wrong.
Will they still boast to Pharaoh of their wisdom?
    Will they dare brag about all their wise ancestors?
12 Where are your wise counselors, Pharaoh?
    Let them tell you what God plans,
    what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is going to do to Egypt.
13 The officials of Zoan are fools,
    and the officials of Memphis[a] are deluded.
The leaders of the people
    have led Egypt astray.

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Footnotes

  1. 19:13 Hebrew Noph.

25 I will send armies against you to carry out the curse of the covenant you have broken. When you run to your towns for safety, I will send a plague to destroy you there, and you will be handed over to your enemies.

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