Daniel 5:5–12

⁵Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the ¹back of the hand that did the writing.

⁶Then the king’s ^1aface grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him, and his ^bhip joints went slack and his ^cknees began knocking together.

⁷The king called aloud to bring in the ^aconjurers, the ¹Chaldeans and the diviners. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, “Any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me shall be ^bclothed with purple and have a ^cnecklace of gold around his neck, and have authority as ^2dthird ruler in the kingdom.”

⁸Then all the king’s wise men came in, but ^athey could not read the inscription or make known its interpretation to the king.

⁹Then King Belshazzar was greatly ^aalarmed, his ^1bface grew even paler, and his nobles were perplexed.

¹⁰The queen entered the banquet ¹hall because of the words of the king and his nobles; the queen spoke and said, “^aO king, live forever! Do not let your thoughts alarm you or your ²face be pale.

¹¹“There is a ^aman in your kingdom in whom is ¹a ^bspirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father, illumination, insight and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father ^2cthe king, appointed him chief of the ³magicians, conjurers, ⁴Chaldeans and diviners.

¹²“This was because an ^aextraordinary spirit, knowledge and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas and solving of difficult problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named ^bBelteshazzar. Let Daniel now be summoned and he will declare the interpretation.”