And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David.
Hiram ... sent his servants unto Solomon. This Hiram was the grandson of David's contemporary (Kitto). He was the same Hiram, according to Winer and others. The friendly relations which the king of Tyre had cultivated with David are here seen renewed with his son and successor, by a message of condolence, as well as of congratulation on his accession to the throne of Israel. The alliance between the two nations had been mutually beneficial by the encouragement of useful traffic. Israel, being agricultural, furnished grain and oil, while the Tyrians, who were a commercial people, gave in exchange their Phoenician manufactures, as well as the produce of foreign lands. A special treaty was now entered into in furtherance of that undertaking which was the great work of Solomon's splendid and peaceful reign. Solomon speaks of his having been destined by divine pre-intimation to be the builder of the temple (cf. with 1 Kings 5:5; 1 Chronicles 22:9; 2 Chronicles 6:7).