The Daily Audio Bible

Belshazzar's big party^[a]

5 King Belshazzar gave a big party for 1,000 important people in his country. He drank wine with all of them. ² When he had drunk a lot of wine, he spoke to his servants. He commanded them to bring the valuable gold and silver cups, so that the people could drink from them. His father, King Nebuchadnezzar, had taken those cups from God's temple in Jerusalem. King Belshazzar wanted to drink from them, as well as his important friends, his wives and his other women. ³ So his servants brought the gold and silver cups that had come from God's temple in Jerusalem. Then the king, his wives, his other women and all the important people drank wine from those cups. ⁴ While they drank the wine, they praised their gods. Their gods were idols that were made from gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.

A hand writes on the wall

⁵ While they were doing that, the fingers of a human hand appeared. They wrote on the wall of the king's palace, near the light that stood in the room. The king watched the hand while it wrote. ⁶ When he saw it, his face became white. He was very afraid. His knees shook and his legs became weak.

⁷ The king called for his enchanters, his wise men and his diviners to come.^[b] When they arrived, the king said to them, ‘Who can read these words? Who can tell me what they mean? Whoever can do that, I will make him great. I will put valuable purple clothes on him and he will have a gold chain around his neck. I will make him the third ruler in the kingdom.’^[c]

⁸ Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the words. They could not tell the king what the words meant. ⁹ So King Belshazzar became even more afraid. His face became even whiter. His officers did not know what to do.

The queen tells Belshazzar about Daniel^[d]

¹⁰ The king's mother heard the voices of the king and his officers. So she came into the room where they were having the party. She said to the king, ‘King, live for ever! Do not be afraid. Do not shake with fear! ¹¹ There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. When your father was alive, this man showed that he was very wise, like the gods. He could understand secret things. Your father, Nebuchadnezzar, made him the leader of all the magicians, wise men, enchanters and diviners. ¹² His name was Daniel, but the king called him Belteshazzar. He was very clever and he knew many things. He could explain what dreams mean. He could find the answer to difficult problems. Send somebody to bring Daniel here. He will tell you what these words mean.’

Belshazzar asks Daniel to explain the message

¹³ So they brought Daniel to stand in front of the king. The king said to him, ‘Are you one of the men that my father, the king, brought here from Judah? Is your name Daniel? ¹⁴ I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you. You are very wise and clever. I have heard that you understand many things. ¹⁵ I told my wise men and enchanters to read these words. I asked them to tell me what the words mean. But they could not explain the message to me. ¹⁶ I have heard that you can tell people what their dreams mean. And I have heard that you can find the answer to difficult problems. So can you read these words? Can you tell me what they mean? If you can do that, then I will put valuable purple clothes on you. You will have a gold chain around your neck. You will become the third ruler in the kingdom.’

Daniel warns the king

¹⁷ Then Daniel answered the king, ‘You can keep your gifts for yourself. You can make someone else important. But I will read the words for the king, and I will tell him what they mean. ¹⁸ I tell you this, King Belshazzar. The powerful God who rules over everything gave authority to your father, Nebuchadnezzar, to rule as king. God made him very great and very famous, so that he ruled with power. People respected him as a great king. ¹⁹ Because God made him so great, the people in every nation, who spoke every language, were very afraid of him. If he wanted to kill someone, he could kill them. And if he wanted to save someone, he could let them live. If he wanted to make someone important, he did that. And if he wanted to make someone poor, he did that too. ²⁰ But he became very proud and he boasted about his power. So God took away his kingdom. People did not respect him any longer as king. ²¹ They chased him away from his home. His mind became like an animal's mind. He lived with the wild donkeys. He ate grass like cows do. Dew from the sky made his body wet. He lived in that way until he understood that the powerful God above rules over human kingdoms. God gives authority to rule to anyone that he chooses.

²² King Belshazzar, you are Nebuchadnezzar's son, and you knew all that. But you did not become humble. ²³ You thought that you were greater than the Lord of heaven. So you told your servants to bring the valuable cups that belong to God's temple. You yourself, your wives, your other women and your important friends drank wine from those cups. You praised your gods that were made from silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood and stone. Those are idols that cannot see or hear. They cannot understand anything. But you worshipped them instead of the true God. He is the God who gives life to you. He has power over everything that you do. ²⁴ Because of that, God sent the hand that wrote this message.

²⁵ These are the words:

²⁶ This is what the words mean:

²⁷ Tekel means “weighed”. It shows that God has weighed you. But the scales show that you are too light.

²⁸ Peres means “separate”.^[e] It shows that God has cut your kingdom into two separate parts. He has given it to the people from Media and Persia.’

²⁹ When Belshazzar heard that, he caused his servants to put purple clothes on Daniel. They put a gold chain round his neck to show that he was an important person. The king told everyone that Daniel had become the third ruler in the kingdom.

³⁰ That same night, Belshazzar, the king of the Babylonians, died. His enemies killed him. ³¹ Then Darius from Media received power as king. He was 62 years old.

God will punish false teachers

2 Many years ago, there were false prophets among God's people. They did not speak God's true messages. In the same way, there will also be false teachers among you. They will come among you and they will teach you things that are not true. Their wrong ideas will deceive people. Those false teachers will even speak against the Master, who paid the price for their sins. As a result, they will bring trouble on themselves that quickly destroys them. ² Many people will believe these false teachers. They will live in a bad way, like the false teachers. As a result, other people will say bad things against God's true way to live.

³ The false teachers want you to give them money. So they will teach things that are not true. A long time ago, God already decided that he must punish them. God is ready to do that now. Certainly, he will soon destroy them.

⁴ God even punished the angels who refused to obey him. He threw them down into the deep hole of hell. He tied them up and he kept them in that completely dark place. They will remain there until the day when God will judge them.^[a]

⁵ Also, a long time ago, God punished all the bad people who lived in the world. He sent water to cover over all the earth. All the people who had turned away from him drowned in the water. But God kept Noah safe. Noah had told people God's message that they should do right things. So God saved Noah, and seven other people, from the water.^[b]

⁶ Later, God punished the people who lived in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because they did bad things, God decided to destroy them. He burned those cities completely, so that only ashes remained. When God did that, he showed what will happen to all people who refuse to obey him. ⁷ But God saved Lot from danger. Lot was a good man. He was very sad because the people in Sodom did not obey God's laws. They lived in a very bad way. ⁸ Lot lived among those bad people. Every day, he saw the bad things that they did. Every day, he heard the bad things that they said. As a result, Lot had much trouble in his mind, because he was a good man.^[c]

⁹ We know that the Lord God has done all these things in past times. He knows how to save people who respect him from their troubles. But he will continue to punish the people who refuse to obey him. He will keep them until the day when he will judge them. ¹⁰ God will certainly punish those people who want bad things for themselves. They do the wrong things that their bodies want to do. They do not want to obey anyone's authority.

These false teachers are not afraid of what other people think about them. They think that they themselves are very important. They are not afraid to say many bad things against the great angels in heaven.^{[d] 11} The angels are more powerful than the false teachers are. But even these angels will not say bad things against them when the Lord is present.

¹² But these false teachers speak against things that they do not understand. They are like wild animals. Their minds cannot think properly. They only do what their nature causes them to do. Wild animals are born so that people can catch them and kill them. In the same way, God will destroy the false teachers. ¹³ They have caused other people to have much trouble. In return, God will cause them to have trouble. They just do things which will make their bodies happy. They have wild parties, even during the day. They eat and drink too much when they eat meals with you. They enjoy all these bad ways to be happy. As a result, people think bad things about you as well. They cause people to be ashamed about you. So they are like dirty marks that spoil something which is clean. ¹⁴ All the time, they are looking for women who will have sex with them. They never stop doing wicked things. They teach people who have weak minds to believe wrong things. They just want more and more things to make themselves happy. God will certainly punish these people, because they are so bad.

¹⁵ These false teachers have left the way which is good and right. Like Balaam, Beor's son, they have gone the wrong way. Balaam wanted money so much that he did wrong things to get it. ¹⁶ But a donkey told him that he was not obeying God. We know that donkeys cannot talk. But that donkey spoke with a human voice. It stopped the prophet Balaam from doing more crazy things.^[e]

¹⁷ These false teachers promise good things that will never happen. They are like a dry well that has no water. They are like clouds in a storm which the wind blows away so that no rain comes. God will certainly send them to the darkest place in hell. He has kept that place ready for them.

¹⁸ The messages that these teachers speak seem very important. But their words really mean nothing. In that way, they lead people away from God. Some people have not been believers for very long. They have only just become free from the wrong things that people do. But the false teachers tell these people to do bad things that will make them happy. ¹⁹ The false teachers tell these believers to do whatever they want to do. They promise that this will make them really free. But the false teachers themselves are not free. Instead, they are like slaves. They cannot stop doing the bad things that will destroy them. We know that if something has power over a person, then that person is its slave.

²⁰ People like that learned about our Lord Jesus Christ, who saves us. As a result, they had stopped doing the bad things that belong to this world. They had become free from the power of those things. But now they have started to do those bad things again. Those things have power over them and they cannot stop doing them. So now, these false teachers are worse than they were at the beginning, before they believed in the Lord Jesus.

²¹ It would have been better for them if they had never known God's good way. But they did understand about the right things that God wants us to do. And then they turned away from that way of life. They stopped obeying God's good rules, that people had taught them. ²² You know these true proverbs: ‘After a dog has been sick, it returns to eat it again.’^[f] Also: ‘After you wash a pig, it will quickly roll in the dirt again.’ These words describe how the false teachers live.

SAMEKH

AYIN