It is towards the middle of the eleventh century B.C. that these materials become available.  About the time when David was acclaimed as king by the tribe of Judah at Hebron, a Phoenician prince mounted the throne of Tyre, by name Abibalus, or Abi-Baal.[1453] We do not know the length of his reign; but, while the son of Jesse was still in the full vigour of life, Abi-Baal was succeeded on the Tyrian throne by his son, Hiram or Hirom, a prince of great energy, of varied tastes, and of an unusually broad and liberal turn of mind.  Hiram, casting his eye over the condition of the states and kingdoms which were his neighbours, seems to have discerned in Judah and David a power and a ruler whose friendship it was desirable to cultivate with a view to the establishment of very close relations.  Accordingly, it was not long after the Jewish monarch’s capture of the Jebusite stronghold on Mount Zion that the Tyrian prince sent messengers to him to Jerusalem, with a present of “timber of cedars,” and a number of carpenters, and stone-hewers, well skilled in the art of building.[1454] David accepted their services, and a goodly palace soon arose on some part of the Eastern hill, of which cedar from Lebanon was the chief material,[1455] and of which Hiram’s workmen were the constructors.  At a later date David set himself to collect abundant and choice materials for the magnificent Temple which Solomon his son was divinely commissioned to build on Mount Moriah to Jehovah; and here again “the Zidonians and they of Tyre,” or the subjects of Hiram, “brought much cedar wood to David."[1456] The friendship continued firm to the close of David’s reign;[1457] and when Solomon succeeded his father as king of Israel and lord of the whole tract between the middle Euphrates and Egypt, the bonds were drawn yet closer, and an alliance concluded which placed the two powers on terms of the very greatest intimacy.  Hiram had no sooner heard of Solomon’s accession than he sent an embassy to congratulate him;[1458] and Solomon took advantage of the opening which presented itself to announce his intention of building the Temple which his father had designed, and to request Hiram’s aid in the completion of the work.  Copies of letters which passed between the two monarchs were preserved both in the Tyrian and the Jewish archives, and the Tyrian versions are said to have been still extant in the public record office of the city in the first century of the Christian era.[1459] These documents ran as follows:—­

“Solomon to King Hiram [sends greeting]:—­Know that my father David was desirous of building a temple to God, but was prevented by his wars and his continual expeditions; for he did not rest from subduing his adversaries, until he had made every one of them tributary to him.  And now I for my part return thanks to God for the present time of peace, and having rest thereby I purpose to build the house; for God declared to my father that it should be built by me.  Wherefore I beseech thee to send some of thy servants with my servants to Mount Lebanon, to cut wood there, for none among us can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.  And I will pay the wood-cutters their hire at whatsoever rate thou shalt determine.”