Historical events

Amos 1:1 · Religious

The book of Amos dates the words Amos "saw" concerning Israel to the overlapping reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Amos 1:1 · Zechariah 14:5 · Natural disaster

An earthquake used as a dating reference in Amos 1:1 ("two years before the earthquake") and recalled in Zechariah 14:5 as an occasion when people fled "in the days of Uzziah king of Judah".

Jeremiah 46:2 · Military

Nebuchadnezzar, as Babylonian crown prince, defeated the Egyptian army of Necho II at Carchemish on the Euphrates. Jeremiah 46:2 dates the battle to the fourth year of Jehoiakim.

Daniel 1:3–7 · Daniel 1:17–20 · Social, Royal

Royal and noble Judean youths, including Daniel and three companions, were given Babylonian names and trained for three years in Chaldean learning before serving the king.

Daniel 1:1–2 · Military, Royal, Religious

Daniel 1:1–2 dates a siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar to Jehoiakim's third year, after which Jehoiakim was given into his hand and temple vessels were taken to the house of his god in Shinar.

Daniel 1:8–16 · Personal narrative, Religious

Daniel declined the king's food and wine; after a ten-day test on vegetables and water the four youths appeared healthier and were allowed to continue the diet.

Jeremiah 25:1–3 · Jeremiah 25:8–14 · Religious

Jeremiah dates a word to all Judah in Jehoiakim's fourth year, "the first year of Nebuchadnezzar", after twenty-three years of preaching: Nebuchadnezzar, the LORD's servant, will come against the land; the nations will serve Babylon seventy years; then Babylon itself will be punished.

Daniel 2:1–45 · Royal, Religious, Miracle claim

In Nebuchadnezzar's second year the king demanded that his diviners recount and interpret a troubling dream; after a decree against the wise men, Daniel received the dream in a night vision and interpreted it as a sequence of four kingdoms followed by God's everlasting kingdom.

Daniel 2:46–49 · Political, Royal

After the interpretation, Nebuchadnezzar honoured Daniel, made him ruler of the province of Babylon and chief over its wise men, and at Daniel's request appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego over the province's affairs.

Daniel 3:1–7 · Royal, Religious, Construction

Nebuchadnezzar set up a gold image sixty cubits high and six wide on the plain of Dura and summoned the provincial officials to its dedication, commanding worship at the sound of the instruments on pain of death in a furnace.

Daniel 3:28–30 · Legal, Political, Royal

The king blessed the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, forbade speaking against him on pain of death, and promoted the three in the province of Babylon.

Daniel 3:8–27 · Religious, Legal, Miracle claim

Accused of refusing to worship the image, the three Judeans declined the king's ultimatum, were thrown bound into an overheated furnace, and were seen walking unharmed with a fourth figure before emerging untouched.

Daniel 4:4–27 · Royal, Religious

In a first-person royal account, Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great tree cut down by a heavenly watcher; Daniel interprets it as the king's coming humbling for "seven times" until he acknowledges the Most High.

Daniel 4:28–37 · Daniel 4:1–3 · Royal, Miracle claim

Twelve months after the dream, the king boasted over the Babylon he had built; he was driven from human society to live like an animal for "seven times", then his reason returned and he praised the Most High and was restored.

Daniel 5:30–31 · Death, Political, Royal

That night Belshazzar was killed, and Darius the Mede, about sixty-two years old, received the kingdom.

Daniel 1:21 · Personal narrative

Daniel 1:21 states that Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus. The statement marks a point in Cyrus's first year in Babylon; Daniel 10:1 later dates a vision to Cyrus's third year.

Daniel 5:1–29 · Royal, Religious, Miracle claim

At a great feast Belshazzar drinks from the temple vessels taken from Jerusalem; a hand writes on the palace wall; Daniel, summoned on the queen's advice, rebukes the king and reads the writing as the end of his kingdom, and is made "third ruler".

Daniel 5:28–31 · Military, Political

After defeating the Babylonian army at Opis and taking Sippar, Cyrus's forces under Ugbaru, governor of Gutium, entered Babylon without a battle on 16 Tašrītu of Nabonidus's 17th year; Nabonidus was captured, and Cyrus entered the city on 3 Arahsamna.

Daniel 6:4–23 · Legal, Religious, Miracle claim

Rival officials obtain an unalterable decree forbidding petitions to anyone but the king for thirty days; Daniel keeps praying toward Jerusalem, is cast into a sealed lions' den, and is found unharmed at dawn.

Daniel 6:1–3 · Daniel 6:28 · Political, Royal

Darius the Mede organises the kingdom under 120 satraps answerable to three chief officials, one of them Daniel, whom the king intends to set over the whole realm. The chapter closes by noting that Daniel prospered under Darius and under Cyrus the Persian.

Daniel 6:24–27 · Legal, Religious, Royal

The accusers, with their wives and children, are thrown to the lions; Darius decrees that all his dominion should fear the living God of Daniel.

Daniel 7:1 · Daniel 7:15–16 · Daniel 7:28 · Religious

In the first year of Belshazzar Daniel sees a night vision — four beasts from the sea, a heavenly court, and one like a son of man given an everlasting kingdom — and is given its interpretation by an attendant. This record is the narrated experience; the symbols and their interpretations are separate vision and prophecy records.

Daniel 8:1–2 · Daniel 8:15–19 · Daniel 8:27 · Religious

In the third year of Belshazzar Daniel sees, at Susa by the Ulai, a ram and a goat, four horns and a little horn that desolates the sanctuary; Gabriel explains it, and Daniel falls ill. This record is the narrated experience; symbols and interpretations are separate records.

John 10:22 · Religious, Military

After three years of desolation under Antiochus IV, Judas Maccabaeus's party built a new altar and resumed the offerings on 25 Chislev of the Seleucid year 148, instituting the eight-day festival later called Dedication or Lights.

Nehemiah 2:1–8 · Political, Construction

In Nisan of Artaxerxes' twentieth year his cupbearer Nehemiah asks to be sent to Judah to build the city of his fathers' tombs; the king grants letters for safe passage and timber for the gates, the wall and a house.

Ezra 1:1–4 · 2 Chronicles 36:22–23 · Ezra 6:3–5 · Political, Religious

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia a proclamation allows the exiles of Judah to return and build the house of God at Jerusalem; a memorandum of it was later found at Ecbatana (Ezra 6:2–5).

Ezra 6:13–18 · Religious, Construction

The house of God at Jerusalem was finished on the third day of Adar in the sixth year of Darius and dedicated with sacrifices.

Ezra 6:1–12 · Political, Religious

After work resumed in Darius's second year and the governor Tattenai enquired, Darius had the archives searched, found Cyrus's memorandum at Ecbatana, and ordered the work to proceed at royal expense.

Daniel 9:20–23 · Religious

While Daniel is still praying, Gabriel arrives about the time of the evening offering and gives him the word of the seventy weeks. This record is the narrated encounter; the prophecy and its interpretations are a separate record.

Daniel 9:1–2 · Daniel 9:3–19 · Religious

In the first year of Darius the Mede, Daniel understands from the books that Jeremiah's seventy years for Jerusalem's desolation are nearing completion, and with fasting confesses Israel's sin and asks God to restore his city and sanctuary.