2 Samuel 5:11

DAVID’S INTERCOURSE WITH HIRAM HIS TEMPORAL PROSPERITY, 2 Samuel 5:11-16.

11. And Hiram Called Huram in 2 Chronicles 2:3; 2 Chronicles 2:11; 2 Chronicles 8:2; 2 Chronicles 9:10. On the question of the identity of this Hiram with the one who assisted Solomon in building the temple, see on 1 Kings 5:1.

Tyre On the locality of this great city see Joshua 19:29. From this verse we learn that it was under a monarchical form of government, and in it the mechanical arts had been carried to a noteworthy state of perfection. In Isaiah xxiii, 8, it is called “the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth.” Its power and glory are more fully delineated in Ezekiel 26-28.

Sent messengers to David Probably for the purpose of forming an alliance with him. David seems to have availed himself of the opportunity thus offered to secure from Hiram the service of carpenters and masons workers in wood and stone and also the gift of cedar wood from Lebanon.

They built David a house A royal palace on Zion. This verse is evidently the mere outline of many interesting facts in the history of David which the sacred writer has not seen proper to record. This mention of David’s intercourse with the king of Tyre, as well as what follows about the growth of his family, is appended to the notice of the capture of Zion, (2 Samuel 5:6-10,) not because these events followed in chronological order immediately after its capture, but in order to show how David grew great and prospered.