1 Belshatzar the king made a mishteh gadol (great feast) to a thousand of his nobles, and drank wine before the thousand.
2 Belshatzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his forefather Nevuchadnetzar had taken out of the Beis Hamikdash which was in Yerushalayim, that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the Beis Hamikdash of the Beis HaElohim which was at Yerushalayim, and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.
4 They drank wine, and praised the g-ds of gold, and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's yad (hand), and wrote opposite the menorah upon the plaster of the wall of the king's heikhal, and the king saw the part of the yad that wrote.
6 Then the king's countenance was changed, and his machsh'vot troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosed, and his knees knocked together.