Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, “Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them.”
Parallel Translations
-
Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, “Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them.”
-
Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because the LORD hath loved his people, he hath made thee king over them.
-
(2-10) Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon: 'Because the LORD loveth His people, He hath made thee king over them.'
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to 2 Chronicles 2:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Kings 10:9 Blessed is Yahweh your God, who delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel. Because Yahweh loved Israel forever, therefore he made you king, to do justice and righteousness.”
- 2 Chronicles 9:8 Blessed be Yahweh your God, who delighted in you, to set you on his throne, to be king for Yahweh your God; because your God loved Israel, to establish them forever. Therefore he made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.”
- Psalms 72:17 His name endures forever. His name continues as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed by him. All nations will call him blessed.
- Deuteronomy 7:7-8 Yahweh didn’t set his love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples; but because Yahweh loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Ch 2:11 Then Huram the king of Tyre answered…
2Ch 2:11 Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because the LORD hath loved his people, he hath made thee king over them.
Ver. 11. Because the Lord hath loved his people.] It is a great mercy of God to any people, that they have good governors; and the contrary. {Isa 3:2-4}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here we have, I. The return which Huram made…
Here we have, I. The return which Huram made to Solomon's embassy, in which he shows a great respect for Solomon and a readiness to serve him. Meaner people may learn of these great ones to be neighbourly and complaisant. 1. He congratulates Israel on having such a king as Solomon was (Ch2 2:11): Because the Lord loved his people, he has made thee king. Note, A wise and good government is a great blessing to a people, and may well be accounted a singular token of God's favour. He does not say, Because he loved thee (though that was true, Sa2 12:24) he made thee king, but because he loved his people. Princes must look upon themselves as preferred for the public good, not for their own personal satisfaction, and should rule so as to prove that they were given in love and not in anger. 2. He blesses God for raising up such a successor to David, Ch2 2:12. It should seem that Huram was not only very well affected to the Jewish nation, and well pleased with their prosperity, but that he was proselyted to the Jewish religion, and worshipped Jehovah, the God of Israel (who was now known by that name to the neighbouring nations), as the God that made heaven and earth, and as the fountain of power as well as being; for he sets up kings. Now that the people of Israel kept close to the law and worship of God, and so preserved their honour, the neighbouring nations were as willing to be instructed by them in the true religion as Israel had been, in the days of their apostasy, to be infected with the idolatries and superstitions of their neighbours. This made them high, that they lent to many nations and did not borrow, lent truth to them, and did not borrow error from them; as when they did the contrary it was their shame. 3. He sent him a very ingenious curious workman, that would not fail to answer his expectations in every thing, one that had both Jewish and Gentile blood meeting in him; for his mother was an Israelite (Huram though she was of the tribe of Dan, and therefore says so here, Ch2 2:14, but it seems she was of the tribe of Naphtali, Kg1 7:14), but his father was a Tyrian - a good omen of uniting Jew and Gentile in the gospel temple, as it was afterwards when the building of the second temple was greatly furthered by Darius (Ezra 6), who is supposed to have been the son of Esther - an Israelite by the mother's side. 4. He engaged for the timber, as much as he would have occasion for, and undertook to deliver it at Joppa, and withal signified his dependence upon Solomon for the maintenance of the workmen as he had promised, v. 15, 16. This agreement we had, Kg1 5:8, Kg1 5:9.
II. The orders which Solomon gave about the workmen. He would not employ the free-born Israelites in the drudgery work of the temple itself, not so much as to be overseers of it. In this he employed the strangers who were proselyted to the Jewish religion, who had not lands of inheritance in Canaan as the Israelites had, and therefore applied to trades, and got their living by their ingenuity and industry. There were, at this time, vast numbers of them in the land (Ch2 2:17), who, if they were of any of the devoted nations, perhaps fell within the case, and therefore fell under the law, of the Gibeonites, to be hewers of wood for the congregation: if not, yet being in many respects well provided for by the law of Moses, and put upon an equal footing with the native Israelites, they were bound in gratitude to do what they could for the service of the temple. Yet, no doubt, they were well paid in money or money's worth: the law was, Thou shalt not oppress a stranger. The distribution of them we have here (Ch2 2:2, and again Ch2 2:18), in all 150,000. Canaan was a fruitful land, that found meat for so many mouths more than the numerous natives; and the temple was a vast building, that found work for so many bands. Mr. Fuller suggests that the expedient peculiar to this structure, of framing all beforehand, must needs increase the work. I think it rather left so much the more room for this vast multitude of hands to be employed in it; for in the forest of Lebanon they might all be at work together, without crowding one another, which they could not have been upon Mount Sion. And, if there had not been such vast numbers employed, so large and curious a fabric, which was begun and ended in seven years, might, for aught I know, have been as long in building as St. Paul's.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Huram said, moreover, blessed be the Lord God of…
Huram said, moreover, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, that made heaven and earth,.... Huram seems to have had some good notions of the divine Being, not only as the God of the people of Israel, in a peculiar sense, but as the Former and Maker of all things:
who hath given to David the king a wise son, endued with prudence and understanding; see Kg1 5:7.
Read full note →
that might build an house for the Lord, and for his kingdom; as in Ch2 2:1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 11. Answered in writing] Though correspondence among persons…
Verse 11. Answered in writing] Though correspondence among persons of distinction was, in these early times, carried on by confidential messengers, yet we find that epistolary correspondence did exist, and that kings could write and read in what were called by the proud and insolent Greeks and Romans barbarous nations. Nearly two thousand years after this we find a king on the British throne who could not sign his own name. About the year of our Lord 700, Withred, king of Kent, thus concludes a charter to secure the liberties of the Church: Ego Wythredus rex Cantiae haec omnia suprascripta et confirmavi, atque, a me dictata propria manu signum sanctae crucis pro ignorantia literarum espressi; "All the above dictated by myself, I have confirmed; and because I cannot write, I have with my own hand expressed this by putting the sign of the holy cross +." - See Wilkins' Concilta.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Ch 2:11. Huram answered, Because the Lord loved his…
2Ch 2:11. Huram answered, Because the Lord loved his people, &c. — Thus he congratulates the happiness of Israel in having such a king as Solomon was. And certainly a wise and good government is a great blessing to a people, and may well be accounted a singular token of God’s favour. He does not say, Because he loved thee he made thee king, (though that also was true,) but because he loved his people. Princes must look upon themselves as preferred for the public good, not for their own personal satisfaction, and should rule so as to evidence they were given to their people in love, not in anger.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Josephus and others professed to give Greek versions of…
Josephus and others professed to give Greek versions of the correspondence, which (they said) had taken place between Hiram and Solomon. No value attaches to those letters, which are evidently forgeries.
Because the Lord hath loved his people - Compare the marginal references. The neighboring sovereigns, in their communications with the Jewish monarchs, seem to have adopted the Jewish name for the Supreme Being (Yahweh), either identifying Him (as did Hiram) with their own chief god or (sometimes) meaning merely to acknowledge Him as the special God of the Jewish nation and country.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain HURAM'S KIND ANSWER. (Ch2 2:11-18)
HURAM'S KIND ANSWER. (Ch2 2:11-18)
Because the Lord hath loved his people, &c.--This pious language creates a presumption that Huram might have attained some knowledge of the true religion from his long familiar intercourse with David. But the presumption, however pleasing, may be delusive (see on Kg1 5:7).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 11–16 [10–15, Heb.] (= 1Ki_5:7-9). Huram’s Answer to Solomon
11–16 [10–15, Heb.] (= 1Ki_5:7-9). Huram’s Answer to Solomon
11. hath loved] R.V. loveth. Cp. 2Ch_9:8.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (11) Answered in writing.—Said in a letter. This seems…
(11) Answered in writing.—Said in a letter. This seems to imply that Solomon’s message had been orally delivered.
Because the Lord hath loved his people.—So 2Ch_9:8; 1Ki_10:9. In the parallel passage Hurain blesses Jehovah, on hearing Solomon’s message, apparently before writing his reply.
Read full note →
(11-15) Huram’s reply. (Comp. 1Ki_5:7-9.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Huram answered in writing. It is impossible to argue…
Huram answered in writing. It is impossible to argue with any but superficial plausibility that Solomon had not used writing. In the parallel of Kings an identical expression is used for the communications of both: "Solomon sent to Hiram" (ver. 2), and "Hiram sent to Solomon" (ver. 8). The productions of the forms of this correspondence by Josephusand ("Ant. Jud:," 8:2) Eupolemus ("Ap. Praep. Evang.," 9:33) are, of course, merely mythical. Because the Lord hath loved his people. This beautiful expression has parallels, not only in such passages as 2Ch_9:8; 1Ki_10:9; but in such as Deu_7:13; Psa_47:4 Psa_115:12; Jer_31:3; Hos_11:1, Hos_11:4. These were all precursors of the fuller assertion and kinder demonstration of God"s love repeated so often and in such tender connections in the Epistles of the New Testament. This verse and the following are also testimony to the indirect influences on surrounding nations of the knowledge of the one true Creator-God and Ruler-God, that was domiciled by special revelation and oracle (Rom_3:2) with Israel. Where nations near were bitter foes, they often feared Israel"s God, whereas now they were friends they could summon to their lips the highest of the outbursts of praise, not to say of adoration. The very noteworthy sympathy of Hiram with Israel may have owed something to his personal predilection for David. (1Ki_5:1) And this again is convincing testimony to the worth and usefulness of individual character which here influenced the destiny of two whole nations.
God"s care for the country.
Read full note →
the Lord hath loved his people, he hath made thee king over them." We reach our subject by the remembrance of
I GOD"S ATTITUDE TOWARD ISRAEL IN RESPECT OF THE MONARCHY UP TO SOLOMON"S TIME. It has to be considered:
1. That for a visible human sovereignty God held the people themselvesresponsible. He did not impose it; nor did he suggest it; nor did he desire it; on the other hand, by the mouth of his servant Samuel, he strongly dissuaded from it. (see 1Sa 8)
2. That, granting their request, God gave them a king on their own chosenprinciple. They demanded a sovereign they could see and hear, one that would be a king "after the flesh;" and on this fleshly and material principle God selected one that had bodily advantages. (see 1Sa_10:23, 1Sa_10:24)
3. That, when Saul failed, God had pity upon them, and gave them a manafter his own choice a man who had, truly, some serious defects as who had not? but who, by the fascination of his bearing, by the courage and capacity of his leadership, by his unswerving loyalty to his God, bound the nation together, overcame its numerous enemies, extended its borders, and held it fast to the service of Jehovah. And now God had given to the people David"s son, Solomon. And we look at
II GOD"S GIFT TO ISRAEL IN PREFERRING SOLOMON TO THE THRONE. It was a Divine appointment, that made for:
1. National piety. Solomon regarded as the great act of his reign the "building a house for the Name of the Lord." And the erection of the temple and the subsequent arrangement of its services did much to bind the people, not of Jerusalem only but of the entire kingdom, to the worship of Jehovah. It promoted national piety by securing the adherence of the people to the service of the true and living God. And this piety meant more than worship; it meant purity also, a sound morality. For no man could be an acceptable worshipper of Jehovah who did not renounce iniquity and seek after righteousness and blamelessness of life.
1. National peace. Solomon, true to his name, was a man of peace. The nation had known enough of war under David; it required peace, and this Solomon gave it. In this matter almost everything then and there depended
2. upon the character and spirit of the monarch. A war-like king would create national hostilities; a peace-loving king ensured national rest from strife. We know what war means; it may mean glory, enlargement, enrichment; it must mean cruelty, passion, pain, death, desolation in heart and home; it must mean an arrest laid upon national industry and enterprise. But by the promotion of Solomon God was providing for:
3. National industry. During his reign a great stimulus was given to the industrial arts and to the commerce of the country. Israel opened its eyes to see what it had not had any glimpse of before, and an immense stride was taken in the path of civilization and production.
Thus God cared for the country which he had especially made his own. Thus he cares for all countries, when he raises up men that seek the piety (and with that the morality), the peace, the industry, of the people. Thus shall we be truly working with God when we live to promote these great causes. It is in these things that a nation finds its real prosperity; and he is the faithful citizen of his native laud who throws his influence, in every open way, into these scales; it is he who truly loves and serves his country. C.
Vers. 11-15.
The two Hirams.
I HIRAM THE KING.
1. His kingdom. Phoenicia Variously explained as "the land of palms," "the land of purple-dyeing." "the land of the brown-red," with reference to the colour of the skin of its inhabitants, Phoenicia in Solomon"s time was bounded on the west by the Mediterranean, on the east by Lebanon, on the south by the kingdom of Israel, while towards the north the limit was uncertain, though usually fixed about Arvad, thus making in all a territory a hundred and twenty miles long and twenty miles broad. "It is a liberal estimate for the area to reckon it at four thousand square miles, which is less than that of at least one English county, (Rawlinson, "Phoenicia: Story of the Nations," p. 2). Well watered by streams from Lebanon, the country was extremely fertile. In addition to cedars on the heights of Lebanon, fruit trees and vines clothed its slopes, whilst the valleys yielded an abundance of palms, fat pasture, garden produce, and corn. Silicious earth for making glass was found upon the coast, which also furnished the purple shells necessary for dyeing. Iron and probably copper were obtained at Sarepta and elsewhere (Riehm, Handworterbuch, art. Phoenicien).
2. His capital. Tyre in Hebrew Sor, in Assyrian Surru, in Old Latin Sarra. The city is supposed to have been so called because of its having been built at least the insular part of it upon a rock. Most likely younger than Sidon, it was yet a city "whose antiquity was of ancient days". (Jer_23:7) Founded two hundred and forty years before the building of Solomon"s temple (Josephus, "Ant.," 8:3. 1), it was greatly celebrated for its natural and artificial splendour. (Eze_27:3) Planted in a pleasant place, (Hos_9:13) it was afterwards compared to "a virgin bathing in the sea, a Tartessus ship swimming upon the ocean, an island on shore, and a city in the sea" (Kitto"s " Cyclopaedia," art. "Tyre").
3. His subjects. The men of Tyro. Renowned as wood-cutters and artists, "skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson," they were likewise merchants who traded with all parts of the then known world. (Eze_27:1-36) As to physical characteristics, on the whole "the Phoenicians probably, both in form and feature, very much resembled the Jews who were their near neighbours, and who occasionally intermarried with them (1Ki_11:1 1Ki_16:31; 2Ch_2:14) while as to moral characteristics, they shared those of the Western Semites generally pliability combined with iron fixedness of purpose; secondly,depth and force; thirdly, a yearning for dreamy ease, together with a capacity for the hardest work; fourthly, a love of abstract thought; and fifthly, religiousness, together with an intensely spiritual conception of the Deity" (Rawlinson, "Phoenicia," p. 25).
1. His history. A son of Abibaal, the first King of Tyro, and a contemporary as well as friend of both David and Solomon (see preceding homily), he was clearly a man of culture. He could write, and in that accomplishment many later kings, even in Christian times and in our own land, have been deficient. Withred, King of Kent, A.D. 700, thus concluded a charter to secure the liberties of the Church: "All the above dictated by myself I have confirmed, and, because I cannot write, I have with mine own hand expressed this by putting the sign of the holy cross + "( Adam Clarke). Writing, however, had been introduced into Phoenicia from Egypt long before the days of Hiram (Rawlinson, "Phoenicia," p. 328). Whether
2. copies of the epistolary correspondence of Hiram and Solomon were preserved in "the public records of Tyre" (Josephus, " Ant.," 8:2. 8) may be doubtful, but no ground exists for challenging the accuracy of the biblical account that both Solomon and Hiram could write.
3. His character. Originally a worshipper of Baal, and a restorer of the temple of the sun-god, he appears to have become an enlightened and sincere follower of Jehovah, whom he recognizes as not merely the national Divinity of Israel, but also as the Maker of heaven and earth (ver. 12). That he was courteous and kind, his intercourse both with David and Solomon attests. That he was a shrewd man of business, who could look well after his own interest, shines out by no means dimly in the hint given to Solomon to forward "the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine, which my lord had spoken of," when he would see to the felling of the timber (vers. 15, 16).
II HIRAM THE ARTIST.
1. His parentage. The son of a Tyrian brass-worker, and of a Danite widow belonging to the tribe of Naphtali. (ver. 14; 1Ki_7:14) he was probably on this account selected by the aged sovereign as one likely to be acceptable to the Hebrew monarch and his people. The discrepancy as to the tribe from which Hiram"s mother proceeded may be removed by supposing that she was originally a Danite maiden, whose first husband belonged to the tribe of Naphtali, and whose second was a Tyrian.
2. His profession. A sort of universal genius, who had skill and understanding to find out every device put before him like the artist Harmon, of whom Homer ("Iliad," 5:59, 60) says that he "knew how to form with his hands all ingenious things." "As Theodore of Samos was an architect, a caster of works in bronze, an engraver of signets, and a maker of minute works in the precious metals, as Michael Angelo Buonarotti was at once a painter, a sculptor, an architect, and a worker in bronze" (Rawlinson, "Phoenicia," p. 97), so Hiram of Tyro, like Bezaleel, (Exo_31:4) was goldsmith, silversmith, brazier, iron-worker, stone-carver, wood-engraver, linen-weaver, all in one.
3. His renown. On account of professional eminence the king had dignified him with the title Abi, "my father," which meant "master;" in the sense that he was both master of his work and master of works for the king, as afterwards he is styled Solomon"s father, (2Ch_4:16) because he manufactured for Solomon the vessels for the house of the Lord.
Compare Joseph"s calling himself "a father," i.e. a master or manager, "to Pharaoh". (Gen_45:8)
Learn:
1. The highest office of a king to promote the material, intellectual, andreligious prosperity of his people.
2. The proper duty of friendship to rejoice in thewelfare, co-operate in the undertakings, and reciprocate the courtesies of others.
3. The noblest service of art to consecrate its genius to the glory of Godand the advancement of true religion. W.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Huram’s Kind Answer
Huram’s Kind Answer
v. 11. Then Huram, the king of Tyre, having received Solomon’s message delivered to him in the form of a letter, answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because the Lord hath loved His people, He hath made thee king over them; for wise and good kings are a gift of His merciful goodness.
Read full note →
v. 12. Huram said moreover. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, with whose worship he was evidently familiar, having accepted the true God in faith, that made heaven and earth, who hath given to David the king a wise son, endued with prudence and understanding, not a dead knowledge, but one which readily adjusted itself to any situation, that might build an house for the Lord and an house for his kingdom.
v. 13. And now I have sent a cunning man, an artist such as Solomon desired accompanied the embassy to Jerusalem, endued with understanding, of Huram, my father’s, the master’s name itself being Huram, like that of the king, 1Ki 7:13,
v. 14. the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device, to work out any pattern, which shall be put to him with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David, thy father. The artist selected by Huram not only met all the requirements of Solomon, but even exceeded them.
v. 15. Now, therefore, the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine, which my lord hath spoken of, let him send unto his servants;
v. 16. and we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need; and we will bring it to thee in floats, huge rafts, by sea to Joppa, along the shores of the Mediterranean; and thou shalt carry it up to Jerusalem, the distance which the lumber had to be hauled over land being some thirty miles.
v. 17. And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, the members and descendants of heathen nations in the midst of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David, his father, had numbered them, 1Ch 22:2; and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred.
v. 18. And he set threescore and ten thousand of them to be bearers of burdens, and fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountain, both to hew stones and to fell timber, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people a work, this being the total number, of which three thousand were non-Israelites, the others, both of the lower and of the higher rank, being Israelites. Note: Solomon is a type of Christ, who also built a great temple to the Lord, not of wood and stone and precious metals, but of believers in His blood. And all servants of Christ are called to assist in erecting this wonderful temple of the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 gifted with prudence and understanding
gifted with prudence and understanding
This can be restated to remove the abstract nouns "prudence" and "understanding." AT: "who is very intelligent and understands many things" (See: Abstract Nouns)
Read full note →
translationWords
king
Tyre
love
people of God
bless
Israel
earth
wise
gift
house of God
kingdom
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.