Timeline of the Bible · The Captivity & the Return
Persia
Empire · 538–434 BC
The Years
- Began 538 BC
- “In the same night, that this banquet was made, was Belshasar the king of the Chaldeans slain”
- Ended 434 BC
- Daniel’s seventy weeks, counted from Nehemiah 2:1. Ussher: 442 BC
- “Nehemias, when he had governed Judea 12 years”
From Babylon given to the Medes and Persians (Daniel 5:28, 31) to the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes, 434 BC, the last year the Old Testament names (Nehemiah 13:6). Ussher ends it in 442 BC, counting Artaxerxes from 473 BC.
Where the year isn’t Ussher’s, the text sets it, and the note says how. Ussher’s years and sentences are from his Annals of the World (1658), quoted as printed.
