{"id":62058,"date":"2019-09-01T06:01:01","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T03:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=62058"},"modified":"2023-03-24T15:11:51","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T12:11:51","slug":"a-beautiful-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-beautiful-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"A Beautiful Friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[920,907,838],"acf":{"old_id":"62058","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34250,"related_cahpter":"296","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A strong personal and political alliance between Solomon and Hiram shows the potential for close international ties","content":"

For twenty years, Solomon worked on God\u2019s Temple and his own palace, relying heavily on materials and workers provided by a friend of his father\u2019s, Hiram, king of Tyre. Finally, the time came to fulfill his part of the bargain, and so \u201cKing Solomon in turn gave Hiram twenty towns in the region of Galilee\u201d (9:11) \u2013 but alas, \u201cwhen Hiram came from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them\u201d (ibid. 12).<\/span><\/p>\n

Uh oh. What happens when a powerful king doesn\u2019t satisfactorily fulfill his bargain with another?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, if they\u2019re friends, they talk about it with good cheer, and work something out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018My brother,\u2019 he said, \u2018what sort of towns are these you have given me?\u2019 So they<\/span> were named the land of Cabul\u201d (ibid. 13).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother\u201d \u2013 and then in the next verse, Hiram still sends Solomon more gold. Doesn\u2019t sound like much of a showdown over those disappointing cities, does it?<\/span><\/p>\n

Commentaries suggest, based on II Chronicles 8:2 and B. Talmud Shabbat 54a, that Hiram was displeased because the land didn\u2019t bear fruit easily \u2013 and he therefore simply returned the cities to Solomon, who got his own people working the land and repaid Hiram with other goods instead. An easy, friendly solution; \u201cand through this, the connection remained between them for the future\u201d (Malbim on 9:13).<\/span><\/p>\n

That sort of lasting, durable connection \u2013 a friendship that crossed lines of nationhood and religion \u2013 struck ancient scholars as so rare that when two examples were found, it was suggested that they were actually one and the same: One view in Genesis Rabbah 85:4 identifies Hiram as Hirah, Judah\u2019s friend mentioned in Genesis 38:1. (This midrashic view is presumably rooted as well in both the similar names and the fact that Hiram\u2019s friends, David and Solomon, descended from Judah.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is another special relationship that might also come to mind when reading of Hiram. When Hiram first heard from Solomon back in I Kings 5:5, \u201che was overjoyed\u201d and praised God \u201cfor granting David a wise son to govern this great people.\u201d Hiram\u2019s joy is striking, a surprisingly personal and emotional reaction to the news that another nation has a new leader who looks like he will be good for them. What does the wisdom of another people\u2019s leader, his plans to build them and their God a Temple, have to do with Hiram? But joy on behalf of the Jewish people, from someone who may or may not ever have officially been a part of them, appears earlier in the Bible as well: \u201cAnd Jethro rejoiced over all the kindness that the LORD had shown Israel (Exodus 18:9).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It may be rare, but these individuals demonstrate that it\u2019s possible to maintain friendly ties, and not only that, to be genuinely happy for others\u2019 success despite all kinds of differences.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Hiram shows the planes to Solomon. Engraving of J.J. Scheuchzer, \u00abPhysica Sacra Iconibus Illustrata\u00bb, Augsburg, 1731<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":62061,"id":62061,"title":"1kings9-hiram-solomon","filename":"1kings9-hiram-solomon.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings9-hiram-solomon.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-beautiful-friendship\/1kings9-hiram-solomon\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings9-hiram-solomon","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":62058,"date":"2019-09-01 03:01:32","modified":"2021-12-01 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