Hiram. (1) King of Tyre who encouraged trade with Israel under both David and solomon (2 Sam. 5:11 and 1 Kgs. 9:10-14). (2) A skilled worker in the Temple (1 Kgs. 7:13).

Hiram; also Huram in the Chronicles (2 Chron. 2:3). A king of the city of Tyre in the time of David and Solomon, with both of whom he was friendly. By agreements with Solomon he supplied lumber and workmen for the building of the house of God in Jerusalem. 2 Sam. 5:11; 1 Kings 5:1-12; 9:10-14.

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Hiram (shortened from Heb. Ahiram, ‘my brother [god] is exalted’ or ‘brother of the exalted one’; alternatively Huram [Chronicles]).

1. The king of Tyre, and a contemporary of David and Solomon. Hiram I, son of Abibaal, was nineteen years old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned thirty-four years (ca. 969-935 b.c.). The kingdom he established is vividly pictured by Ezekiel (chaps. 26-27). Under Hiram’s rule Tyre became the leading city of Phoenicia, which launched a colonial empire that spread over the whole of the Mediterranean. He enlarged the island city of Tyre by uniting it with a smaller island and undertook extensive building programs.

The power of the Philistines was apparently broken by an alliance between the Tyrian kings Abibaal and Hiram on the one hand (at sea) and David on the other (on land). David traded with Hiram for materials and craftsmen to build his royal palace in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:11; 1 Chron. 14:1). David established a treaty with Hiram, which was renewed by Solomon who also traded with him for materials and craftsmen, particularly in the building of the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 5:12-18; 2 Chron. 2:3-12). Hiram supplied cedar and other building materials, along with craftsmen, in exchange for wheat and olive oil. Some years later Hiram gave Solomon gold and another larger shipment of cedar and other woods and received in exchange twenty towns in Galilee known collectively as Cabul (1 Kings 9:10-13). Hiram also aided Solomon in his commercial ventures by supplying both ships and sailors for a merchant fleet that operated out of the port of Ezion-geber (1 Kings 9:26-28).

Some scholars have suggested the possibility of a relationship between this Hiram of Tyre and the famous King Ahiram of Phoenician Byblos (ca. 1000 b.c.). There is also an eighth-century King Hiram of Tyre mentioned in an inscription of Tiglath-pileser III.

2. An artisan sent by King Hiram of Tyre to do the bronze work for the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 7:13-14). The son of a woman of the tribe of Naphthali (1 Kings 7:14) or of Dan (2 Chron. 2:14) and a man of Tyre, he was responsible for casting the bronze pillars, the molten sea, and other Temple furnishings in a specially suited clay which was found between Succoth and Zarethan (1 Kings 7:40-46).

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