The Hebrew name Adoram (H151) is a variant of Adoniram (H141), meaning "my lord is exalted" or "high honor." The name appears in 2 Samuel 20:24 and 1 Kings 12:18 as the official over forced labor — though some manuscripts and scholars treat Adoram and Adoniram as the same person.
Like his counterpart Adoniram, Adoram served during the labor-intensive building projects of the united monarchy.
The figure of Adoram/Adoniram represents the tension between the glory of Solomon's kingdom and the human cost behind it. The magnificent temple and palace were built on the backs of conscripted labor — a compromise of the covenant ideal where all Israelites were brothers, not masters and slaves.
Samuel had warned Israel about kings who would take their sons and daughters as servants (1 Samuel 8:11-18). The forced labor under Solomon and Rehoboam fulfilled that warning, and Adoram's death (1 Kings 12:18) became the tragic symbol of a kingdom that had traded covenant fraternity for imperial grandeur.