Daniel 5:30

5:30 And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, 1  was killed. 2 

Daniel 8:1

Daniel Has a Vision of a Goat and a Ram

8:1 3 In the third year 4  of King Belshazzar’s reign, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had appeared to me previously. 5 

1 tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

2 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.

3 sn Dan 8:1 marks the switch from Aramaic (= 2:4b-7:28) back to Hebrew as the language in which the book is written in its present form. The remainder of the book from this point on (8:1-12:13) is in Hebrew. The bilingual nature of the book has been variously explained, but it most likely has to do with the book’s transmission history.

4 sn The third year of King Belshazzar’s reign would have been ca. 551 B.C. Daniel would have been approximately 69 years old at the time of this vision.

5 tn Heb “in the beginning.” This refers to the vision described in chapter seven.