"And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father's."
The Phœnician writer, Dius, and others, style the first King, Abibal, without any surname:—if it had been borne, it is likely that it would have been mentioned. It appears, therefore, evident that the National name of the first King was Abibal only,—Huram (i. e. Hiram) was perhaps the family name, and assumed by the Second Monarch in remembrance of that fact, and in affection to his Parent.
CHAPTER III.
HIRAM THE GREAT.
(1046—990 B. C.)
BUILDING OF DAVID'S PALACE—THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN TYRUS AND ISRAEL—BUILDING OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE BY HIRAM—THE COMMERCE AND FLEETS OF TYRUS—THE CAUSES OF HER WEALTH AND POWER—POLICY WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES, &c.—DEATH OF HIRAM—HIS CHARACTER.
1046 B. C.] David had been King of Judah ten years, and Monarch over all Israel two years, when Hiram ascended the throne of Tyrus. The intimacy and friendship between David and Abibal were continued upon the death of the latter, by his son and representative, Hiram;—for it is recorded that the Tyrian King sent to David, at Jerusalem, Messengers of Peace, Architects and Sculptors, and even materials to erect a Cedar Palace for the Monarch of Israel:—a royal gift, as magnificent as it was original, and (in our reading) we do not remember that it was ever imitated. He was indeed "a lover of David."