Introduction
D. Belshazzar’s feast ch. 5
Belshazzar came to power some nine years after Nebuchadnezzar died. [Note: For a brief history of the Neo-Babylonian Empire between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar’s reigns, I recommend Archer, "Daniel," pp. 69-70.]
The events of this chapter therefore occurred about 66 years after those in chapter 1, and about 36 years after those in chapter 4. Daniel received the revelation in chapter 7 in the first year of Belshazzar (553 B.C., Daniel 7:1), and the revelation in chapter 8 in Belshazzar’s third year (551 B.C., Daniel 8:1). Thus chapter 5 follows chapters 7 and 8 chronologically by 14 and 12 years respectively. Daniel would now have been in his 80s.
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