Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 5:1-9
We have here an account of the amicable correspondence between Solomon and Hiram. Tyre was a famous trading city, that lay close upon the sea, in the border of Israel; its inhabitants (as should seem) were none of the devoted nations, nor ever at enmity with Israel, and therefore David never offered to destroy them, but lived in friendship with them. It is here said of Hiram their king that he was ever a lover of David; and we have reason to think he was a worshipper of the true God, and had himself renounced, though he could not reform, the idolatry of his city. David's character will win the affections even of those that are without. Here is,
I. Hiram's embassy of compliment to Solomon, Kg…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on 1 Kings 5:2
Solomon sent to Hiram - Made an interchange of ambassadors and friendly greetings. Josephus tells us that the correspondence between Hiram and Solomon was preserved in the archives of the Tyrians even in his time. But this, like many other assertions of the same author, is worthy of little credit.
John Gill on 1 Kings 5:3
Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house unto the name of the Lord his God,.... As he designed, and was desirous of; and which Hiram might know not only by common fame, but from David himself, between whom there was an intercourse, and that in relation to cedars for building, which David had of Hiram, 2 Chronicles 2:3;
for the wars which were about him on every side; or warriors, as the Targum, the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, and Syrians:
until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet; made them subject and tributary to him, as he did at length, see 2 Samuel 7:1, &c. so the "Cetib", or textual reading, is; but the "Keri", or marginal reading, is, "under the…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 5:1-12
Solomon's negotiations with Hiram of Tyre. - Kg1 5:1. When king Hiram of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in the place of David, he sent his servants, i.e., an embassage, to Solomon, to congratulate him (as the Syriac correctly explains) on his ascent of the throne, because he had been a friend of David the whole time (כּל־הימים, i.e., as long as both of them David and Hiram were kings). On Hiram and the length of his reign, see the remarks on Sa2 5:11. This is passed over in the Chronicles as having no essential bearing upon the building of the temple.
Kg1 5:2-3
Solomon thereupon communicated to Hiram, by means of an embassy, his intention to carry out the building of the temp…
