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A comparison of the two passages referred to above show certain differences. The name in 1 Kings is Hiram and in 2 Chronicles it is Huram Abi as at the head of this article. In 2 Chronicles 4:16 it is Huram Abiv which may mean “Huram his father”. As to this, one would assume that names weren’t registered as they are today and were probably written according to how they were pronounced which probably varied. For instance we have Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:1) called Nebuchadrezzar in Jeremiah 21:2. |
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However, this is not the problem to which this article is devoted. It is rather that in 1 Kings Hiram is said to be “a widow’s son of the tribe of Naphtali” and in 2 Chronicles he is said to be “the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan”. If anyone were to say that a writer of Scripture has made a mistake in one place or the other, one would draw attention to the fact that the statement in 2 Chronicles is made by the king of Tyre. Although one can say that the writer of Scripture was inspired to record the letter of the king of Tyre one cannot say that the letter was itself inspired. (One could say, for instance, that the Gospel writer was inspired to record the statement “This [man] calls for Elias” (Matthew 27:47) even though it was untrue and clearly not divinely inspired) The king of Tyre could have made a mistake. |
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It may well be that both statements are right. There could have been intermarriage between the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Dan. Reference to a map showing a division of the land will show that the Northern territory of Dan was close to the territory of Naphtali and both were not far from Tyre. (When one speaks of the Northern territory of Dan one is distinguishing it from the part from which Samson came, which was much further South) That there could have been intermarriage (though this was forbidden - Numbers 36:8/9) can be shown from the fact that the woman referred to had married a man of Tyre, as stated in both 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. |
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Apart from what is said above, it is interesting to note the following:- |
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1. Dan and Naphtali were the two sons of Bilhah and were therefore closely related (Genesis 30:1-8). |