1Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
2Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink from them.
3Then they brought the gold vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank from them.
4They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, of brass, iron, wood, and stone.
5In the same hour, 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 part of the hand that wrote.
6Then the king's face changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened, and his knees knocked against each other.