Thank you for the timeline question on Daniel, “Why didn’t the prophet Daniel return to Jerusalem with Nehemiah to rebuild the city and the wall?”
As one reads the post-exilic historical books of Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Esther, it may appear the timeline is within a few years or decades. When Ezra and Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem, Daniel has died. It is more likely that Daniel may have returned with Zerubabbel.
Here is a proposed timeline for one’s consideration from the NIV Bible.
586 BCE the Fall of Jerusalem
539 BCE the Fall of Babylon and the Rise of the Persian Empire (Ezra. 1:1–4)
537 BCE the Return of Sheshbazzar (Ezr. 1:11).
530–520 BCE the Temple stopped and completed (Ezr. 6:15).
458 BCE the return of Ezra to Jerusalem (Ezr. 7:6–9).
444 BCE the return of Nehemiah and rebuilding the Wall (Neh. 2:1–11, 6:15).
Among the Jews taken into captivity, Daniel and his three friends were considered young and smart men (Dan. 1:3–7). It is likely that the youths were in their teens. Daniel recalls or reads that Israel had 70 years of captivity (Dan. 9:1–3). That time period was drawing near. In Ezra 1:1 Cyrus decrees that the exiled people can returned to their lands. This would mean that Daniel would be in his eighties in his age. Ezra returns in 458 BCE. The time difference from 586 BCE to 458 BCE would be at least 150 years. Thus Daniel would have died by the time Ezra and Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem.
If Daniel was in good health when Cyrus decreed that the exiled people could return to their respective homeland, Daniel would have wanted to return to the Promised Land.
SUMMARY: Daniel died before Ezra-Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem.
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