Daniel 5:27-31

5:27 As for teqel – you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking. 5:28 As for peres ¹  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

5:29 Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, ²  Daniel was clothed in purple, a golden collar was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom. 5:30 And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, ³  was killed. ⁴  5:31 (6:1) ⁵  So Darius the Mede took control of the kingdom when he was about sixty-two years old.

¹ sn Peres (פְּרֵס) is the singular form of פַרְסִין (pharsin) in v. 25.

² tn Aram “Belshazzar spoke.”

³ tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

⁴ sn The year was 539 B.C. At this time Daniel would have been approximately eighty-one years old. The relevant extra-biblical records describing the fall of Babylon include portions of Herodotus, Xenophon, Berossus (cited in Josephus), the Cyrus Cylinder, and the Babylonian Chronicle.

⁵ sn Beginning with 5:31, the verse numbers through 6:28 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Aramaic text (BHS), with 5:31 ET = 6:1 AT, 6:1 ET = 6:2 AT, 6:2 ET = 6:3 AT, 6:3 ET = 6:4 AT, etc., through 6:28 ET = 6:29 AT. Beginning with 7:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Aramaic text are again the same.