Verse 6
6. The ruddy “brightness” (Aramaic) of the king’s face, flushed with wine, turns white, like the plaster on which his doom is being written; his loins grow weak and his knees smite together with fear. The strength of man was in the loins (Job 40:16; Ezekiel 21:6), and when he gave way here he suffered total collapse. The unmeaning “spectral letters” quite unmanned the king. The bravest soldiers of antiquity grew weak as babes when put face to face with what they thought to be the supernatural.
The hand is gone, the record tarries yet.
As one who waits the warrant of his death
With pale lips parted and with bridled breath,
They watched the sign and dared not turn to seek
Their fear reflected in their fellow’s cheek.
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