King Belshazzar prepared a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in front of them all.

Then King Belshazzar was very terrified, and he was visibly shaken. His nobles were completely dumbfounded.

“But you, his son Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, although you knew all this.

Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, Daniel was clothed in purple, a golden collar was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom.

While under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father had confiscated from the temple in Jerusalem – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them.