1 Kings 9:10

HIRAM'S DISPLEASURE WITH SOLOMON

"And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the two houses, the house of Jehovah and the king's house (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. And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not. And he said, What cities are these, my brother, which thou hast given me? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day. And Hiram sent to the king six-score talents of gold."

"Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee" (1 Kings 9:11). Some commentators think they have found a contradiction in 2 Chronicles 8:2 where it is related that Hiram (Huram) gave Solomon these twenty cities; but that is no contradiction. Hiram announced the worthlessness of the cities and returned them to the giver, as we should have expected after what is written here.

"He called them the land of Cabul" (1 Kings 9:13). Moffatt rendered this line: "He called them Cabul, the good for nothing district." No wonder he returned them to Solomon. The worthlessness of the territory mentioned here was proverbial. "It was that area later known as `Galilee of the Gentiles" (Matthew 4:15)."[5]

"And Hiram sent to the king six-score talents of gold" (1 Kings 9:14). Like a great many other things in this narrative, the appearance of this statement at this point is by no means chronological. This gold which Hiram sent to Solomon is that gold mentioned in 1 Kings 9:11; and it shows why Solomon ceded part of Israel's territory to Hiram, evidently as payment of a debt which Solomon was unable otherwise to pay. "Solomon's grandiose building schemes were more expensive than he could actually afford."[6]