HIRAM. - Name of a king and of other personages of Tyre who were in relations with Israel.
1. King of Tyre (Heb. Hirām; Hirām in I Kings 5:24; Hirām in I Chron. 14:1 qērē), who at the time of the capture of Jerusalem sent David an embassy of homage, bearing cedar as a gift and accompanied by a group of craftsmen who "built a house for David" (I Sam. 5:11). When Solomon succeeded David, the Phoenician hastened to send a new legation to Jerusalem: from that circumstance onward Solomon began the negotiations, set out in I Kings 5, to obtain the specialized workers and the supply of cedars and firs of Lebanon needed for the construction of the Temple and the royal palace. To the Phoenician craftsmen (I Kings 5:18) Solomon added a great number of local laborers (I Kings 5:6, 13 ff.; 9:20-21); as for the timber, H. had it cut and transported from the mountains to the sea and from there on rafts as far as Joppa, whence Solomon's workers had it continue on to Jerusalem. Solomon compensated H. in kind (I Kings 5:11), but later, to settle his debt, he also had to hand over to him a tract of land in Galilee, where 20 inhabited centers stood (I Kings 9:10-14). When later Solomon wished to have a long-range fleet (the "ships of Tarshish"), H. again supplied him with sailors for the direction and instruction of the Israelite personnel (I Kings 9:27).
2. Artist of Tyre (Heb. Hīrām; Hīrām in I Kings 7:40; Hīrām in II Chron. 14:11; Hīrām-'abhi in II Chron. 2:12; Hīrām-'abhiw in II Chron. 4:16), son of a Phoenician father and an Israelite mother, sent by H. the king to Solomon for the manufacture of the bronze objects needed for the royal palace and the temple (ornamentation and furnishings), described in I Kings 7:13-47. The casting was carried out in a hollow near the Jordan (I Kings 7:46), where there were clayey soils.
3. Another king of Tyre (Assyrian Hurummu), named among the tributaries of Tiglath-Pileser III (Annals, l. CLI, in H. Grossmann, Altor. Texte, 2nd ed., Berlin and Leipzig 1926, p. 346), after the victory of 738 B.C. over the anti-Assyrian league, headed by Azrijau of Jaudi, in northwestern Syria.