30
He feared that he might not have such funds as he had before for his expenses and for the gifts which he used to give more lavishly than preceding kings.
28
And he opened his coffers and gave a year's pay to his forces, and ordered them to be ready for any need.
29
Then he saw that the money in the treasury was exhausted, and that the revenues from the country were small because of the dissension and disaster which he had caused in the land by abolishing the laws that had existed from the earliest days.
30
He feared that he might not have such funds as he had before for his expenses and for the gifts which he used to give more lavishly than preceding kings.
31
He was greatly perplexed in mind, and determined to go to Persia and collect the revenues from those regions and raise a large fund.
32
He left Lysias, a distinguished man of royal lineage, in charge of the king's affairs from the river Euphrates to the borders of Egypt.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.