² Belshaz′zar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver which Nebuchadnez′zar his father 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 the golden and silver vessels^[a] which 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 praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

The Writing on the Wall

⁵ Immediately the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand; and the king saw the hand as it wrote.

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 the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; ²⁷ tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; ²⁸ peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”