chapter of the Book of Daniel was most likely composed as early as 450 BCE and as late as the 2nd century BCE. In the narrative, the God of the Israelites, Yahweh, let King Jehoiakim fall to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel, three friends, and fellow captives have been brought to the Chaldean capital, the newly rebuilt Babylon, to learn the literature of the Chaldeans. Nebuchadnezzar offered them royal food and wine for the three years of their education. Daniel decided not to defile himself with the royal rations, which included meat that may not have been drained of blood, as required by Jewish law, or that was likely often used as ritual offering to the Babylonian god Marduk and his divine son Nabu. Daniel refused to eat foods forbidden by Yahweh and instead asked for vegetables and water. The guard charged with their care expressed concern for their health, so Daniel requested a short test of the diet. For 10 days, they were permitted to eat just vegetables, and at the end, the guard was surprised at their good personal appearance and physical and mental health, compared to those who had accepted the royal foods. Therefore, Daniel and his friends were permitted to eat vegetables for the duration of their training. After continuing with the diet during three years of training, they are judged by the king to be mentally superior to all of his own councilors. Cyrus the Great captured Babylon in 539 BCE, fifty-eight years after the fall of Jerusalem. In the narrative of the tenth chapter of the Book of Daniel, in the third year of the reign of Cyrus, Daniel went into a mourning fast for the first three weeks of the year, including Passover. During the fast, he had no meat, wine, or rich foods. The tenth chapter, and possibly the whole of the Book of Daniel, was composed between 167 and 164 BCE, during the persecution of Jewish people carried out by the Hellenistic King Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Practice The Daniel Fast is derived from the Bible, which states in that "I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled." The Daniel Fast limits food choices to vegetables and water as stated in the Book of Daniel.It thus requires abstinence from "meat, fish, egg, dairy products, chocolates, ice creams,