¹⁷Then Daniel answered and said before the king, q“Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. ¹⁸O king, the rMost High God sgave tNebuchadnezzar your father ukingship and greatness and glory and majesty. ¹⁹And because of the greatness that he gave him, vall peoples, nations, and languages wtrembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. ²⁰But xwhen his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, yhe was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. ²¹zHe was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, zuntil he knew that the rMost High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. ²²And you his son,6 aBelshazzar, bhave not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, ²³but you have lifted up yourself against cthe Lord of heaven. And dthe vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. eAnd you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, fbut the God in whose hand is your breath, and gwhose are all your ways, hyou have not honored.

²⁴“Then from his presence ithe hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. ²⁵And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. ²⁶This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered7 the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; ²⁷Tekel, jyou have been weighed8 in the balances and found wanting; ²⁸Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to kthe Medes and lPersians.”9

²⁹Then aBelshazzar gave the command, and Daniel mwas clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

³⁰nThat very night aBelshazzar the oChaldean king was killed. ³¹10 And pDarius kthe Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

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