s given, to the "first year of Darius," who
succeeded him, when the angel appeared again to Daniel, would be fifteen
years. But the unearthing of the buried records of Babylonia during the
last half century, reveals the fact that Belshazzar was the son of
Nabonidus, associated with him on the throne as king for a few years
before the fall of Babylon. The third year of his reign may very likely
have been the last year; and Darius immediately followed Belshazzar. The
explanation of the ninth chapter might have been within a few weeks or
months following the vision of chapter 8, and probably was.

[H] These texts show that the king came to the throne in the autumn, so
that the actual years of his reign would run from autumn to autumn. Neh.
1:1 begins the record: "In the month Chisleu, in the _twentieth year_."
Neh. 2:1 continues: "It came to pass in the month Nisan, in the
_twentieth year_ of Artaxerxes." Thus it is plain that in the monthly
calendar of the king's actual reign the month Chisleu came first in
order, and then Nisan. Chisleu was the ninth month of the Jewish sacred
year, roughly, December. Nisan is the first month, April. And these
months, December, April,--in that order,--came in the first year of the
king, of course, the same as in his twentieth year. And in the same year
also came the fifth month, August; for Ezra 7:7-9 shows that the first
and fifth months--in that order--also fell in the same year of his
reign. Then we know of a certainty that his reign began somewhere
between August and December, that is, in the autumn. The first year of
Artaxerxes was from the latter part of 464 B.C. to the latter part of
463, and the seventh year, as readily counted off, would be from near
the end of 458 to near the end of 457. Under the commission to Ezra, the
people began to go up to Jerusalem in the spring of that year, 457 B.C.
(in the first month, or April), and they "came to Jerusalem in the fifth
month" (August). Ezra 7:8, 9. Ezra and his associates soon thereafter
"delivered the kings commissions unto the king's lieutenants, and to the
governors on this side the river: and they furthered the people, and the
house of God." Ezra 8:36. With this delivery of the commissions to the
king's officers, the commandment to restore and to build had, most
certainly, fully gone forth. And from this date, 457 B.C., extends the
great prophetic period.

[Illustration: DANIEL'S PRAYER ANSWERED

"I am now come forth to give