1 Chronicles 14:1

EXPOSITION

The contents of this chapter belong to a period of time subsequent to the taking of the fort of Zion, and find their parallel in 2 Samuel 5:11-25 . But if found here in the same order of place as there, they would have followed upon 1 Chronicles 9:9 ; Keil attributes this difference to the desire of our compiler to represent the bringing of the ark to Jerusalem as David's first undertaking on becoming king of the united people. Considering the contents of this chapter, and remembering that it stands between the unsuccessful attempt to bring home the ark and the final successful bringing of it, it would seem a far more natural thing to suppose that this suggested its present order; for compare 1 Chronicles 15:1 , 1 Chronicles 15:2 . The parallel is very close. As far as to the word "Elishua" ( 1 Chronicles 15:5 ), there is no difference in the least degree material, except that the word "concubines" is found in Samuel, and preceding the word "wives" of our 1 Chronicles 15:3 (yet see 1 Chronicles 3:9 ). The two names Elpalet and Nogah are also not found in the parallel, but our compiler is consistent with himself; for see 1 Chronicles 3:6 , 1 Chronicles 3:7 . Further, our 1 Chronicles 3:12 states that the idols of the Philistines were by David's command "burned with fire," while the Hebrew text of Samuel only states that "David and his men removed them" ( וַיִּשָׂאֵם ), where the Authorized Version incorrectly translates "burned them."

The Kethiv abandons here the invariable analogy of Chronicles, and reads Hiram for "Huram," which latter form, however, is replaced in the Keri. Beside this Hiram or Huram, the king, there was another Hiram or Huram, the same king's chief artificer, and whom he sent to the help of Solomon ( 1 Kings 7:13 , 1 Kings 7:40 ; 2 Chronicles 2:13 ; 2 Chronicles 4:11 , 2 Chronicles 4:16 ). The willing aid which this king lent to David on this occasion, in supplying cedar timber and workmen, was "the commencement of that amity between the Tyriaus and the Hebrews, so mutually advantageous to the two nations, the one agricultural and the other commercial" (Milman's 'History of the Jews,' 1:239). The meaning of the name Hiram is probably "noble," or "high.bern." This disposition, at all events, he seems to have illustrated in his generous friendship to David, Solomon, and their people. Very little to be relied upon is known of him outside Scripture, but his reign is said to have extended from B.C. 1023-990.