Hiram. — So the Hebrew text of Chronicles spells the name, and the LXX. and all the other ancient versions both of Samuel and Chronicles have it so. But the Hebrew margin of Chronicles writes “Huram.”
Messengers. — Ambassadors.
Timber of cedars. — Felled from the Lebanon, and sea-borne to Joppa (2 Chronicles 16).
With masons and carpenters. — Literally, and craftsmen of walls, and craftsmen of timber. 2 Samuel 5:11 has “craftsmen of wood, and craftsmen of stone of wall.”
To build him an house. — Samuel, “and they built a house for David.” (2 Samuel 5:11.)
House. — Palace. So the Temple was called “the house” (hab-bayith) as well as “the palace” (hçkçl; comp, the Accadian e-gal, “great house”). We may think of the numerous records of palace building which the Assyrian and Babylonian sovereigns have left us. The cedar of Lebanon (Labnânu) was a favourite material with them.