1 Kings 9:13

This is the name Hiram king of Tyre gave to the twenty cities in Galilee that Solomon gave him, because they did not please him. 1 Kings 9:13. Josephus says that in the Phoenician language the word meant "what does not please." It seems Hiram returned them to Solomon.

These cities did not please Hiram. He let Solomon know that they were less than pleasing. Yet he did not seem to refuse them. He only asked, "What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?" He named them "Cabul," which means "good for nothing."

Solomon 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. 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"? The inheritance belongs first of all to the Lord Jesus, and He shares it with us in grace. We are not free to give away any part of it.

Hiram could not value what meant so much to Solomon and to every Israelite… It is always like this. The world may act with the best intentions, as Hiram did. But when it simply — that is, without faith — has the use of the good things of Christianity that are our joy, it finds no taste for them. These things tire the world out. 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 character. It does not value them at all, so it uses them to show off. And Satan uses these religious-looking things to spread his rule over more souls… The Christian who gives away the least part of his inheritance to the world, hoping to seem broad-minded, gains nothing. He only sees his own character dragged down, his religion despised, and in the end shame brought on God Himself.

Solomon gave him twenty cities in the region of Galilee. 1 Kings 9:10-14 tells us that 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 was glad to be linked with Solomon in the splendour of his house and outward glory. But he counted the disgrace of Galilee as worth nothing. Into these conditions came the Lord Jesus. He grew up in Nazareth in poverty.

Hiram despised this gift and called these cities the "land of Cabul" (good for nothing). We have noted two things. The land of promise never had any value for the world. And Solomon was plainly unfaithful in signing away the Lord's land. As always in this book, Solomon's sin goes unmentioned… Instead of Solomon giving cities to Huram, in verse 2 we see Huram giving cities to Solomon. A day is coming when the world, which Tyre stands for in the Word, will come with its riches. It will admit that it owes tribute to Christ, and it will offer its finest cities as homes for the children of Israel.