| Nehemiah 2:3
| And I said to the king: O king, live for ever: why should not my countenance be sorrowful, seeing the city of the place of the sepulchres of my fathers is desolate, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire?
| Live; an usual salutation, Daniel 3:9., and 5:10. So Aelian (var. 1:32.) says, "O king Artaxerxes, mayst thou reign for ever." --- Father, ver. 5. He knew that the Persians shewed great regard to the dead, (Calmet; Tirinus) whose bodies they sometimes cover with wax, and keep in their house, (Cic.[Cicero?] Tusc. i.; Alex. Genial 3:2.) or inter. (Herodotus 1:140.)
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