31. and therewithal the king gaped and gazed upon her with open mouth: if she laughed upon him, he laughed also: but if she took any displeasure at him, he was fain to flatter, that she might be reconciled to him again.
32. O sirs, how can it be but women should be strong, seeing they do thus?
33. Then the king and the nobles looked one upon another: so he began to speak concerning truth.
34. O sirs, are not women strong? great is the earth, high is the heaven, swift is the sun in his course, for he encircles the heavens round about, and fetches his course again to his own place in one day.
35. Is he not great that makes these things? therefore great is truth, and stronger than all things.
36. All the earth calls upon truth, and the heaven blesses her: all works shake and tremble, but with her is no unrighteous thing.
37. Wine is unrighteous, the king is unrighteous, women are unrighteous, all the children of men are unrighteous, and unrighteous are all such their works; and there is no truth in them; in their unrighteousness also they shall perish.
38. But truth remains, and is strong forever; she lives and conquers forevermore.
39. With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards; but she does the things that are just, and refrains from all unrighteous and wicked things; and all men do well like of her works.
40. Neither in her judgment is any unrighteousness; and she is the strength, and the kingdom, and the power, and the majesty, of all ages. Blessed be the God of truth.
41. And with that he held his tongue. And all the people then shouted, and said, Great is truth, and strong above all things.
42. Then said the king to him, Ask what you will more than is appointed in writing, and we will give it you, inasmuch as you are found wisest; and you shall sit next me, and shall be called my cousin.
43. Then said he to the king, Remember your vow, which you did vow to build Jerusalem, in the day when you came to your kingdom,
44. and to send away all the vessels that were taken out of Jerusalem, which Cyrus set apart, when he vowed to destroy Babylon, and vowed to send them again there.
45. You did also vow to build up the temple, which the Edomites burned when Judaea was made desolate by the Chaldeans.
46. And now, O lord the king, this is that which I require, and which I desire of you, and this is the princely liberality that shall proceed from you: I pray therefore that you make good the vow, the performance whereof you have vowed to the King of heaven with your own mouth.
47. Then Darius the king stood up, and kissed him, and wrote letters for him to all the treasurers and governors and captains and satraps, that they should safely bring on their way both him, and all those that should go up with him to build Jerusalem.
48. He wrote letters also to all the governors that were in Coelesyria and Phoenicia, and to them in Libanus, that they should bring cedar wood from Libanus to Jerusalem, and that they should build the city with him.
49. Moreover he wrote for all the Jews that should go out of his realm up into Jewry, concerning their freedom, that no officer, no governor, no satrap, nor treasurer, should forcibly enter into their doors;
50. and that all the country which they occupied should be free to them without tribute; and that the Edomites should give over the villages of the Jews which then they held:
51. and that there should be yearly given twenty talents to the building of the temple, until the time that it were built;