Hiram, who according to some authorities would be Hiram II.,
according to others, Hiram I.

Mutton's successor, Elulai, continued, as we know, the work of defence
and conquest: perhaps it was with a view to checking his advance that
seven kings of Cyprus sent an embassy, in 709 B.C., to his suzerain,
Sargon, and placed themselves under the protection of Assyria. If this
was actually the case, and Elulai was compelled to suspend hostilities
against these hereditary foes, one can understand that this grievance,
added to the reasons for uneasiness inspired by the situation of his
continental dominions, may have given him the desire to rid himself of
the yoke of Assyria, and contributed to his resolution to ally himself
with the powers which were taking up arms against her. The constant
intercourse of his subjects with the Delta, and his natural anxiety to
avoid anything which might close one of the richest markets of the world
to the Tyrian trade, inclined him to receive favourably the overtures of
the Pharaoh: the emissaries of Shabîtoku found him as much disposed
as Hezekiah himself to begin the struggle. The latter monarch, who
had ascended the throne while still very young, had at first shown no
ambition beyond the carrying out of religious reforms. His father Ahaz
had been far from orthodox, in spite of the influence exerted over him
by Isaiah. During his visit to Tiglath-pileser at Damascus (729 B.C.) he
had noticed an altar whose design pleased him. He sent a description
of it to the high priest Urijah, with orders to have a similar one
constructed, and erected in the court of the temple at Jerusalem: this
altar he appropriated to his personal use, and caused the priests to
minister at it, instead of at the old altar, which he relegated to an
inferior position. He also effected changes in the temple furniture,
which doubtless appeared to him old-fashioned in comparison with the
splendours of the Assyrian worship which he had witnessed, and he made