“Belshazzar and His Revelers Drink from the Vessels of the Temple—a Hand Writes upon the Wall, Telling of Belshazzar’s Downfall—Daniel Interprets the Words and Reproves the King for Pride and Idolatry—That Night Babylon Is Conquered”
(See Daniel 5:1–31.)
President Marion G. Romney said:
“When . . . Daniel was summoned by Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s successor, to interpret the strange handwriting the king had seen on the wall, he showed . . . courage. He told Belshazzar that the writing said:
“‘God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
“‘Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
“‘Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians’ (Dan. 5:26–28).
“Daniel not only read the message, but before he did, he had the courage to tell Belshazzar that he had brought this judgment upon himself by his own transgressions. He further told him that one of his sins was the desecration of the vessels that his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had brought from the temple in Jerusalem, and that another was lifting himself up ‘against the Lord of heaven’ (Dan. 5:23; see Dan. 5). The record says, ‘in that night . . . Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans [was] slain’ (Dan. 5:30).”
(“We Need Men of Courage,” Ensign, May 1975, 73.)
