death comes to the feast in a disguise and makes a plea to god to loose his hand in order to kill belshazzar due to his sacrilegious behavior against the eucharist on top of his sins of idolatry and vanity. belshazzar demands wine, and death, being mistaken for a servant, brings him a golden cup of poisoned wine declaring that in the cup is both life and death. belshazzar toasts himself, drinks the wine, and then there are several increasingly loud thunder claps. a hand appears in the clouds and writes nonsense words that neither idolatry, vanity, belshazzar, nor thought can decipher. idolatry says daniel can read them and calls him to do it.