Daniel 5:10

Hearing the outcry of the king and his nobles, the queen entered the banquet hall. “O king, may you live forever!” she said. “Do not let your thoughts terrify you, or your face grow pale.

Scripture: Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain

WHEN: 539 BC

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WHEN

539 BC

counted from the text

The feast and the fall of the city on the same night.

WHO RULED

Belshazzar king of Babylon 553-539 BC
Cyrus the Great king of Persia 559-530 BC

MEANWHILE

539 BC Babylon

Cyrus takes Babylon without a battle

The city surrenders, and a year later comes the decree that allows the Jews to return.

SOURCES

date — Daniel 5 tells of the night, not the year. The Cyrus Cylinder and the Nabonidus Chronicle date the fall of Babylon to October 539 BC.
Belshazzar — The Nabonidus Chronicle and the tablets that name Belshazzar as son and co-regent. The co-regency explains why, in Daniel 5:7 and 5:29, the reward is *third* place in the kingdom and not second.
Cyrus the Great — Cyrus Cylinder (British Museum), which records the policy of sending peoples and their cults back to their own lands; Herodotus I
Cyrus takes Babylon without a battle — Cyrus Cylinder (British Museum); Nabonidus Chronicle

Daniel 5:10

SEE ALSO