⁵ Suddenly the fingers of a person’s hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote.

⁶ ·King Belshazzar was very frightened [^LThe king’s thoughts terrified him]. His face turned ·white [pale], his knees knocked together, and ·he could not stand up because his legs were too weak [the strength left his legs; ^Lhis hips went loose; ^Cthe idiom may mean he wet himself]. ⁷ The king called loudly for the ·magicians [enchanters], ·wise men [^LChaldeans; ^Ca group of astrologers], and ·wizards [exorcists] of Babylon and said to ·them [^Lthe wise men of Babylon], “Anyone who can read this writing and explain ·it [^Lits interpretation] will be clothed in purple [^Cbefitting a king] and have a gold chain around his neck. And I will make that person the third highest ruler in the kingdom [^Cafter Nabonidus and Belshazzar; v. 1; Gen. 41:42; Esth. 8:15].”