HIRAM or HURAM (anT, n7111 ; Sept.•Xei pcibc. The name also appears in the form 125-01-1, and this was probably the original form, as Me nander in Josephus (C. Apion. i. IS) gives it Etpw u.os, and in Herodotus (vii. 98) it appears as Itpco /los). I. A king of Tyre, whose name appears as that of the friend and ally both of David and Solo mon, to the former of whom he sent artificers who built for him a palace (2 Sam. v. r ; arm. xiv. I); and to the latter of whom he sent both mate rials and artificers for the erection of the temple (i Kings v. 15, ff. [A. V. v. i, ff.]; 2 Chron. 3, ff.) In return Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in Galilee ; which, however, seemed to Hiram so unworthy a return that he applied to them a term of contempt [Cautill, and restored them to the Jewish king (t Kings ix. ri; 2 Chron. viii. 2).
It is not easy to determine whether it was the same Hiram who was the friend of both David and Solomon, or whether different princes of the same name had relations with these two monarchs suc cessively. The latter is on the whole the more probable solution. The chronological difficulties of the former supposition seem insuperable. The Hiram who was the friend of Solomon is said by Menander (ap. Joseph. /. c.) to have reigned 33 years. Now we know he was alive and on the throne in the twentieth year of Solomon's reign (i Kings ix. io-13), so that he could not at the furthest have been king for more than 13 years before David's death. How, then, could he be the Hiram who assisted David to build his house more than 3o years before ? This difficulty is aggravated it we accept the statement of Josephus that the Ifiram who assisted Solomon had only been 1 years on the throne when the temple began to be built in the fourth year of Solomon's reign ; for this would allow only 7 years for his being king before David's death. It will hardly do with Michaelis to resort to the supposition that though the building of David's house is mentioned in the history of the early part of his reig-n, it was not really commenced till near the close of it ; for nc,t only is this improbable in itself —improbable that David should have been con tent without a fitting house so long—improbable that had he wanted one so long he would have begun to build one at the close of his life (his sixty third year if we take the statement of Josephus) ; but we must deal in the most arbitrary manner with the narrative to make it accord with this sup position ; as, ex.gr., we must suppose the king's
house,' mentioned 2 Sam. xi. 2, to be not the house said to have been built for the king in ch. v. t, unless we would place David's affair with Bethsheba in his extreme old age, and make Solomon little more than an infant at the time of his father's death. These difficulties may, indeed, be avoided by rejecting the statenient of Menander that Hiram reigned 33 years, and supposing that his reign extended from the commencement of David's reign over Israel, to the istli year of Solomon's reign, a period of nearly 5o years. But so long a reign is in itself iinpro bable, and the testimony of Menander seems, from the minuteness of some of his details, to have rested on authentic documents. On the whole it appears better to suppose two Hirams. But in what relation did they stand to each other ? The natural supposition is that they were father and son. But here the testimony of Menander again inter poses a difficulty, for he says that Hiram the friend of Solomon was the son of Abibal. This has led some to conjecture that the later Hiram was the grandson ot the earlier ; while others suggest that Abibal (9yn..3,1) was the distinctive honorary name of the Ruiner, whose proper name was Hiram. This latter suggestion is rendered probable by the fact that other persons of the name of Hiram oc cur in the series of kings of Tyre (Joseph. Cont. Apion. Tatian (Oral. C. Greve., p. 171, ed. Col.) says, on the authority of Phoenician historians, that Solomon married Hiram's daughter. He was succeeded by his son Baleazar (Joseph., /. c.)— W. L A.
2. The son of a widow in the tribe of Dan, and of a Ty-rian father. He was sent by the king of the same name to execute the principal works of the interior of the temple, and the various utensils required for the sacred services. We recognise in the enumeration of this man's talents by the king of Tyre a character common in the industrial his tory of the ancients, namely, a skilful artificer, knowing all the arts, or at least many of those arts which we practise, in their different branches. [HANDICRAFT.] It iS probable that lie was se lected for this purpose by the king from among others equally gifted, in the notion that his half Hebrew blood would render him the MOM accept able at Jerusalem.—J. K.