2 Samuel 20:24

24. Adoram Called also Adoniram and Hadoram, 1Ki 4:6 ; 2 Chronicles 10:18. He received his appointment at a late period of David’s reign, and continued in office until the reign of Rehoboam, when he was stoned to death by the infuriated people, who had grown tired of excessive taxation. See 1 Kings 12:18.

Over the tribute The Hebrews were required to pay tribute to Jehovah to sustain the service of the sanctuary. Exodus 30:11-16. The support of the kingdom, the court, and the building of public works required additional revenues, and the kings of Israel, when they had the power, exacted tribute from the foreign nations that were subject to them, and also, in times of emergency, from the Israelitish people themselves. This taxation became, in the reign of Solomon, so burdensome that after his death the people protested against it. 1 Kings 12:4. It was Adoram’s business to superintend all these revenues of the kingdom, but more particularly the levies of men which were, from time to time, required for the public works. The Hebrew word מס , here rendered tribute, means generally a tribute of bond-service, or levies of men impressed for various kinds of labour. So the word is used in 1 Kings 5:13-14. There it appears that Adoram’s duty was to oversee the levies that were bound to labour, whether they were levied from among the Israelites, or were bond-servants from among the heathen. This, perhaps, explains why this officer first appears at a late period of David’s reign, when the number of foreign captives, reduced to bond-service by the fortunes of war, had become so great as to require a special officer to superintend them.