Belshazzar (bel-shăs'zar), Bel's prince, or may Bel protect the king, was the son or grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, and the last Assyrian king of Babylon. Daniel 5:1; Daniel 5:18. During the siege of the city of Babylon he gave a sumptuous entertainment to his courtiers, and impiously made use of the temple furniture (of which Nebuchadnezzar had plundered the temple at Jerusalem) as drinking-vessels. In the midst of the festivities, to the terror of the king, a hand miraculously appeared to be writing upon the wall: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. Daniel was called in to explain the mystery, which, interpreted, proved to be a prophecy of the king's death and the kingdom's overthrow, which took place in the course of the succeeding night, when Darius the Median captured the city. Daniel 5:25-31.