This is one of those stories. It features a king so puffed up with pride that he believes himself immortal, only to be brought crashing down to earth – quite literally!
We're talking about Hiram, King of Tyre, a name you might recognize from the biblical accounts of the building of the First Temple in Jerusalem. Hiram, you see, provided the cedar wood for King Solomon's magnificent Temple. But somewhere along the line, Hiram's ego inflated to epic proportions.
According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, Hiram, in his arrogance, began to float above the earth. He wasn't just walking tall; he was soaring! He started to believe he was superior to everyone. Can you imagine the sight?
Then, out of nowhere, the prophet Ezekiel appears! Wafted there by a divine wind, no less. Ezekiel confronts Hiram, asking him point-blank why he's so proud, reminding him that he's "born of woman."
Hiram's response? Unbelievable. He brazenly declares, "I am not one born of woman; I live forever… See how many kings I have survived!" He boasts about outliving twenty-one kings of the House of David, countless others, and even scores of prophets and high priests. The audacity!
This, of course, does not sit well with God. According to the legend, God declares that He will destroy His own house – the very Temple Hiram helped build – just so Hiram won’t have any reason left for his self-glorification. All that pride, the story implies, stemmed from supplying the cedar for the Temple.
The end for Hiram is brutal. He's conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king. Ironically, Nebuchadnezzar was Hiram's step-son, but that didn't stop him from enacting a truly gruesome punishment. Daily, Nebuchadnezzar is said to have cut off pieces of Hiram's flesh and forced him to eat them, until the proud king finally perished. Talk about a fall from grace!
But the story doesn't end there. Hiram’s palace, we're told, was swallowed by the earth. And there it will remain, deep within the earth, until it emerges in the future world as a dwelling place for the righteous. A strange and unsettling image, isn’t it?
What are we to make of this bizarre tale? It seems to be a powerful cautionary story about the dangers of excessive pride, of forgetting our place in the grand scheme of things. Even someone who contributed to something as sacred as the Temple could fall prey to arrogance and suffer a terrible fate. It reminds us that true greatness lies not in boasting and self-glorification, but in humility and service.