Daniel 5:1-12 ▼

1 Belshazzar the king has made a great feast to one thousand of his great men, and before the one thousand he is drinking wine;

2 Belshazzar has said—while tasting the wine—to bring in the vessels of gold and of silver that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple that [is] in Jerusalem, that the king may drink with them, and his great men, his wives, and his concubines.

3 Then they have brought in the vessels of gold that had been taken out of the temple of the house of God that [is] in Jerusalem, and the king and his great men, his wives and his concubines, have drunk with them;

4 they have drunk wine, and have praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

5 In that hour fingers of a man’s hand have come forth, and they are writing in front of the lampstand, on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king is seeing the extremity of the hand that is writing;

6 then the king’s countenance has changed, and his thoughts trouble him, and the joints of his loins are loosed, and his knees are striking against one another.

7 The king calls mightily, to bring up the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king has answered and said to the wise men of Babylon, that, “Any man who reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, he puts on purple, and a bracelet of gold [is] on his neck, and he rules third in the kingdom.”

8 Then all the wise men of the king are coming up, and they are not able to read the writing, and to make known the interpretation to the king;

9 then King Belshazzar is greatly troubled, and his countenance is changing in him, and his great men are perplexed.

10 The queen, on account of the words of the king and his great men, has come up to the banquet-house. The queen has answered and said, “O king, live for all ages; do not let your thoughts trouble you, nor your countenance be changed:

11 there is a man in your kingdom in whom [is] the spirit of the holy gods: and in the days of your father, light, and understanding, and wisdom—as the wisdom of the gods—was found in him; and your father King Nebuchadnezzar, chief of the scribes, enchanters, Chaldeans, soothsayers, established him—your father, O king—

12 because that an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of enigmas, and loosing of knots was found in him, in Daniel, whose name the king made Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and the interpretation he shows.”