Daniel Interprets the Handwriting on the Wall

5:17 But Daniel replied to the king, “Keep your gifts, and give your rewards to someone else! However, I will read the writing for the king and make known its39 interpretation. 5:18 As for you, O king, the most high God bestowed on your father Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, greatness, honor, and majesty.40 5:19 Due to the greatness that he bestowed on him, all peoples, nations, and language groups were trembling with fear41 before him. He killed whom he wished, he spared42 whom he wished, he exalted whom he wished, and he brought low whom he wished. 5:20 And when his mind43 became arrogant44 and his spirit filled with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and his honor was removed from him. 5:21 He was driven from human society, his mind45 was changed to that of an animal, he lived46 with the wild donkeys, he was fed grass like oxen, and his body became damp with the dew of the sky, until he came to understand that the most high God rules over human kingdoms, and he appoints over them whomever he wishes.

5:22 “But you, his son47 Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself,48 although you knew all this. 5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods49 that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control50 your very breath and all your ways! 5:24 Therefore the palm of a hand was sent from him, and this writing was inscribed.

5:25 “This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE,51 TEQEL, and PHARSIN.52 5:26 This is the interpretation of the words:53 As for mene54—God has numbered your kingdom’s days and brought it to an end. 5:27 As for teqel—you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking. 5:28 As for peres55—your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders,56 Daniel was clothed in purple, a golden collar was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom. 5:30 And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king,57 was killed.58 5:31 (6:1)59 So Darius the Mede took control of the kingdom when he was about sixty-two years old.