1 Kings 9:12

Solomon finished building his houses in 20 years, and to thank Hiram for his great help in supplying timber and gold for the temple, Solomon gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee (vs.10-11). But these cities did not please Hiram (v.12). He let Solomon know they were less than pleasing. He does not seem to have refused them; he only asked, "What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?" (vs.11-12). He named them "Cabul" which means "good for nothing."

King of Tyre, who loved David and was a friend of Solomon. Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee, but Hiram was not pleased with them. He called them, in Aramaic, CABUL — 'displeasing or dirty' — and in the end the cities went back to Solomon.

Solomon certainly did not have God's approval in giving away these cities. The Lord had already said, "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me" (Lev. 25:23). Solomon had no right to give away the least part of the land, for it did not belong to him: it belongs to God. Can we today give away any part of the inheritance God has given to believers "in heavenly places"? First of all, that inheritance belongs to the Lord Jesus, who in His grace shares it with us (Eph. 1:9-11). We are not free to give away any part of it.

It is a remarkable fact that the book of Chronicles says nothing about this gift. For reasons given earlier, Chronicles never shows a king doing wrong unless the wrong has to be mentioned to make the history clear. Instead, it puts another account in its place: the "cities which Huram had given to Solomon." Solomon built and fortified them, and then gave them to the children of Israel to live in (2 Chr. 8:1-7). So in 1 Kings Solomon makes God's inheritance smaller; in 2 Chronicles he makes it larger.

Hiram could not value what meant so much to Solomon and to every Israelite… It is always so. The world may act with the best of intentions, as Hiram did. But when it merely has the use of those good things of Christianity that are our joy — that is, without faith — it finds no delight in them. These things weary the world; they count for nothing in its life. No doubt the world will keep them, so that it can boast at times of having them. But it cannot keep them in their original purity… The Christian who gives up the least part of his inheritance to the world in order to seem broad-minded gains nothing. He will only see his own character cheapened, his religion despised, and in the end shame brought upon God Himself.

He gave him twenty cities in the region of Galilee. In 1 Kings 9:10-14 Hiram came to look at them. He called them the land of Cabul, which means "as of nothing" or worthless. That is what he thought about Galilee. He had no problem being linked with Solomon in the splendour of his house and outward glory. But he counted Galilee, with its shame, as worth nothing. Into these conditions came the Lord Jesus. He was brought up in Nazareth in poverty.

What is even more significant is that this territory was given up to a nation sinking deeper and deeper into idol worship, until the whole land came to be called "Galilee of the nations." Still, it was there that God's grace began to be revealed through the ministry of the Lord. So, a thousand years after Solomon, grace repaired his fault.