What Does 2 Samuel 5:11 Mean?

(11) **Hiram king of Tyre.**—This is the same Hiram, variously spelt *Hirom *and *Huram, *who was afterwards the friend of Solomon (1Kings 5:1; 2Chronicles 2:3),and was still living in the twenty-fourth year of Solomon’s reign (1Kings 9:10-14; comp. 6:1, 38; 7:1); either, therefore, he must have had a reign of some fifty-seven years, or else his embassy to David must have been some time after the capture of Jerusalem. It is not unlikely that several years may have elapsed between the two events, during which “David went on and grew great” (2Samuel 5:10), thereby attracting the attention and regard of Hiram. But the statement quoted by Josephus from Menander (*100 Apion, i.* 18) cannot be correct, that Hiram reigned only thirty-four years; for David was already in his “house of cedar” (2Samuel 7:2) when he formed the purpose of building the Temple, and this was before the birth of Solomon (2Samuel 7:12; 1Chronicles 22:9). Huram’s father, however, was also named Huram (2Chronicles 2:13). The Israelites evidently had little skill in architecture, since they relied on the Phœnicians for workmen both for this palace and for Solomon’s, as well as for the Temple.