Daniel 5:18-31

¹⁸O king, the Most High God granted sovereignty, greatness, honor, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father. ¹⁹Now because of the greatness which He granted him, all the peoples, nations, and populations of all languages trembled and feared in his presence; whomever he wished, he killed, and whomever he wished, he spared alive; and whomever he wished he elevated, and whomever he wished he humbled. ²⁰But when his heart was arrogant and his spirit became so overbearing that he behaved presumptuously, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his dignity was taken away from him. ²¹He was also driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like that of animals, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and that He sets over it whomever He wishes. ²²Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this, ²³but you have risen up against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives, and your concubines have been drinking wine out of them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, nor hear, nor understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and all your ways, you have not glorified. ²⁴Then the hand was sent from Him and this inscription was written out.

²⁵“Now this is the inscription that was written:

‘Menē, Menē, Tekēl, Upharsin.’

²⁶This is the interpretation of the message: ‘Menē’—God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. ²⁷‘Tekēl’—you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. ²⁸‘Perēs’—your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

²⁹Then Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a necklace of gold around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.

³⁰That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. ³¹So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.