Discovery BoxDaniel 5:3-6 
Context5:3 So they brought the gold and silver 1 vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God 2 in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them. 5:4 As they drank wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
5:5 At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared 3 and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. 4 The king was watching the back 5 of the hand that was writing. 5:6 Then all the color drained from the king’s face 6 and he became alarmed. 7 The joints of his hips gave way, 8 and his knees began knocking together.
1 tc The present translation reads וְכַסְפָּא (vÿkhaspa’, “and the silver”) with Theodotion and the Vulgate. Cf. v. 2. The form was probably accidentally dropped from the Aramaic text by homoioteleuton.
2 tn Aram “the temple of the house of God.” The phrase seems rather awkward. The Vulgate lacks “of the house of God,” while Theodotion and the Syriac lack “the house.”
3 tn Aram “came forth.”
4 sn The mention of the lampstand in this context is of interest because it suggests that the writing was in clear view.
5 tn While Aramaic פַּס (pas) can mean the palm of the hand, here it seems to be the back of the hand that is intended.
6 tn Aram “[the king’s] brightness changed for him.”
7 tn Aram “his thoughts were alarming him.”
8 tn Aram “his loins went slack.”
