(Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. According to Josephus ('Antiquities,' b. 8:, ch.
vi., sec. 3), they were situated on the northwest of it, adjacent to Tyre. Had they lain within the boundaries of the promised land, they could not have been alienated (Leviticus 25:23). But they were not within the territory of Israel, nor occupied by Israelites (2 Chronicles 8:2), but were inhabited by Canaanite pagans (Judges 4:2-13; 2 Kings 15:29); and being on the border, and his own acquisition, Solomon was at liberty to dispose of them (Selden, 'De Jure Nat. et Gen.,' lib. 6:, cap. 16). They were probably given to Hiram, whose dominions were small, as a remuneration for his important services in furnishing workmen, materials, and an immense quantity of wrought gold (1 Kings 9:14), for the temple and other buildings. The gold, however, as others think, may have been the amount of forfeits paid to Solomon by Hiram for not being able to answer the riddles and apophthegms with which, according to Josephus, in their private correspondence, the two sovereigns amused themselves (see Josephus as above) - Hiram having refused these cities, probably on account of their inland situation making them unsuitable to his maritime and commercial people. [He called them the land of Cabul, Kabuwl (H3521).
Gesenius quotes Hiller in 'Onomast ' V T who takes the name as contracted for kªhaabuwl passive Gesenius quotes Hiller, in 'Onomast.,' V. T., who takes the name as contracted for kªhaabuwl, passive participle of haabal (H1891), as something exhaled, as nothing, and adds, that something like this was perhaps present to the mind of the sacred writer. The Septuagint renders it by: Horion, as if their Hebrew text had read gªbuwl (H1366), border, coast. This is a much more feasible origin of the name than the former. Josephus ('Antiquities,' b. 8:, ch. 6:, sec. 3) says that Cabul, in the Phoenician language, signified what does not please]. Solomon satisfied his ally in some other way; and taking these cities into his own hands, he first repaired their shattered walls, then filled them with a colony of Hebrews (2 Chronicles 8:2). They were suited only to agriculturists: the soil was rich and loamy, and required field labour, to which the Tyrians were not inured. The refusal, on such a ground, of these Galilean cities did not impair the amicable relations that subsisted between Solomon and Hiram (1 Kings 9:15-26). The Septuagint (Vatican) omits the whole passage contained within these verses.