The Writing on the Wall

After Nebuchadnezzar the kingdom passed to his son, whom I find called Evil-merodach in the Chronicles. He died in the twelfth year of his reign and made way for his younger brother, who was called Belshazzar. In the fourteenth year of his reign Belshazzar gave a public feast for his chief men and officials, and he ordered the sacred vessels to be brought out. Nebuchadnezzar had carried them off from the temple at Jerusalem, but they had never been put to any of the king’s uses; they had been kept stored in the treasury. [a]

While everyone, men and women alike, with his wives and concubines, was using these vessels amid the luxury and license of a royal banquet, the king suddenly saw fingers writing on the wall, and the letters could be seen forming words. But no one could be found who was able to read the writing. So the king, alarmed, called for the magi and the Chaldeans. When they only muttered among themselves and gave no answer, the queen reminded the king that there was a certain Hebrew named Daniel, who had once revealed to Nebuchadnezzar a dream that held a secret mystery, and who had then been raised to the highest honors because of his remarkable wisdom.

So Daniel was sent for, and he read and interpreted the writing: because of the king’s sin in profaning vessels sacred to God, destruction hung over him, and his kingdom had been given to the Medes and Persians. And this soon came about. That same night Belshazzar perished, and Darius, a Mede by nation, took over his kingdom. Darius in turn, finding that Daniel was held in the highest repute, put him at the head of the whole empire, following in this the judgment of the kings before him. For Nebuchadnezzar too had set him over the kingdom, and Belshazzar had given him a purple robe and a gold chain and had made him the third ruler in the kingdom.