Hiram

When David became king, Hiram of Tyre sent him cedar trees, carpenters and masons to build a house. That friendship carried on with Solomon, who asked Hiram for timber and workmen for the temple and received them. Solomon also sent for another Hiram, a skilled worker in bronze, who cast the two pillars, the great sea on twelve oxen, and the bases, lavers and shovels. Read 1 Kings 5 for the royal agreement and 1 Kings 7 for the craftsman’s work.

46 verses

2 Samuel

2 Samuel 5:11

And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David an house.

1 Kings

1 Kings 7:13

And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre.

1 Kings 7:14

He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work.

1 Kings 7:15

For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about.

1 Kings 7:16

And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits:

1 Kings 7:17

And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter.

1 Kings 7:18

And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter.

1 Kings 7:19

And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits.

1 Kings 7:20

And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter.

1 Kings 7:21

And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz.

1 Kings 7:22

And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished.

1 Kings 7:23

And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.

1 Kings 7:24

And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast.

1 Kings 7:25

It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward.

1 Kings 7:26

And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.

1 Kings 7:27

And he made ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits the height of it.

1 Kings 7:28

And the work of the bases was on this manner: they had borders, and the borders were between the ledges:

1 Kings 7:29

And on the borders that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubims: and upon the ledges there was a base above: and beneath the lions and oxen were certain additions made of thin work.

1 Kings 7:30

And every base had four brasen wheels, and plates of brass: and the four corners thereof had undersetters: under the laver were undersetters molten, at the side of every addition.

1 Kings 7:31

And the mouth of it within the chapiter and above was a cubit: but the mouth thereof was round after the work of the base, a cubit and an half: and also upon the mouth of it were gravings with their borders, foursquare, not round.

1 Kings 7:32

And under the borders were four wheels; and the axletrees of the wheels were joined to the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.

1 Kings 7:33

And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axletrees, and their naves, and their felloes, and their spokes, were all molten.

1 Kings 7:34

And there were four undersetters to the four corners of one base: and the undersetters were of the very base itself.

1 Kings 7:35

And in the top of the base was there a round compass of half a cubit high: and on the top of the base the ledges thereof and the borders thereof were of the same.

1 Kings 7:36

For on the plates of the ledges thereof, and on the borders thereof, he graved cherubims, lions, and palm trees, according to the proportion of every one, and additions round about.

1 Kings 7:37

After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one size.

1 Kings 7:38

Then made he ten lavers of brass: one laver contained forty baths: and every laver was four cubits: and upon every one of the ten bases one laver.

1 Kings 7:39

And he put five bases on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward over against the south.

1 Kings 7:40

And Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basons. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made king Solomon for the house of the LORD:

1 Kings 7:41

The two pillars, and the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the two pillars; and the two networks, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars;

1 Kings 7:42

And four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, even two rows of pomegranates for one network, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were upon the pillars;

1 Kings 7:43

And the ten bases, and ten lavers on the bases;

1 Kings 7:44

And one sea, and twelve oxen under the sea;

1 Kings 7:45

And the pots, and the shovels, and the basons: and all these vessels, which Hiram made to king Solomon for the house of the LORD, were of bright brass.

1 Kings 9:14

And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.

1 Kings 9:26

And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.

1 Kings 9:27

And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

1 Kings 9:28

And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

1 Chronicles

1 Chronicles 14:1

Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him an house.

2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 2:13

And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father's,

2 Chronicles 4:11

And Huram made the pots, and the shovels, and the basons. And Huram finished the work that he was to make for king Solomon for the house of God;

2 Chronicles 4:12

To wit, the two pillars, and the pommels, and the chapiters which were on the top of the two pillars, and the two wreaths to cover the two pommels of the chapiters which were on the top of the pillars;

2 Chronicles 4:13

And four hundred pomegranates on the two wreaths; two rows of pomegranates on each wreath, to cover the two pommels of the chapiters which were upon the pillars.

2 Chronicles 4:14

He made also bases, and lavers made he upon the bases;

2 Chronicles 4:15

One sea, and twelve oxen under it.

2 Chronicles 4:16

The pots also, and the shovels, and the fleshhooks, and all their instruments, did Huram his father make to king Solomon for the house of the LORD of bright brass.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

High-born. (1.) Generally “Huram,” one of the sons of Bela (1 Chr. 8:5).

(2.) Also “Huram” and “Horam,” king of Tyre. He entered into an alliance with David, and assisted him in building his palace by sending him able workmen, and also cedar-trees and fir-trees from Lebanon (2 Sam. 5:11; 1 Chr. 14:1). After the death of David he entered into a similar alliance with Solomon, and assisted him greatly in building the temple (1 Kings 5:1; 9:11; 2 Chr. 2:3). He also took part in Solomon’s traffic to the Eastern Seas (1 Kings 9:27; 10:11; 2 Chr. 8:18; 9:10).

(3.) The “master workman” whom Hiram sent to Solomon. He was the son of a widow of Dan, and of a Tyrian father. In 2 Chr. 2:13 “Huram my father” should be Huram Abi, the word “Abi” (rendered here “my father”) being regarded as a proper name, or it may perhaps be a title of distinction given to Huram, and equivalent to “master.” (Comp. 1 Kings 7:14; 2 Chr. 4:16.) He cast the magnificent brazen works for Solomon’s temple in clay-beds in the valley of Jordan, between Succoth and Zarthan.

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(noble).

(1.) The king of Tyre who sent workmen and materials to Jerusalem, first, (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Chronicles 14:1) to build a palace for David (B.C. 1064), whom he ever loved, (1 Kings 5:1) and again, 1Kin 5:10; 7:13; 2Chr 2:16 To build the temple for Solomon, with whom he had a treaty of peace and commerce (1 Kings 5:11,12) He admitted Solomon’s ships issuing from Joppa, to a share in the profitable trade of the Mediterranean, (1 Kings 10:22) and the Jewish sailors, under the guidance of Tyrians, were taught to bring the gold of India, (1 Kings 9:26) to Solomon’s two harbors on the Red Sea.

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(2.) Hiram was the name of a man of mixed race, (1 Kings 7:13,40) the principal architect and engineer sent by King Hiram to Solomon.

Based on Nave's Topical Bible by Orville J. Nave (1896). Dictionary entries from Easton's Bible Dictionary and Smith's Bible Dictionary. Public domain. KJV scripture text, public domain.