The education of King Benjamin's sons may have been, and probably was, over a period of several years, for we are told that when they had been taught "in all the language of his fathers, that thereby they might become men of understanding," King Benjamin saw that he must shortly die. The Sacred Record says, "He waxed old." Waxed old, means grew old, and although the word wax is seldom in modern-day favor, it is good English so to use it. Feeling the infirmities of great age, and realizing that each passing year added burdens to the weight he already carried, King Benjamin deemed it wise to appoint one of his sons to be ruler in his stead.