1 Kings 9:11

11. Twenty cities One city for every year of building. This gift of Solomon was evidently a token of his good-will to Hiram, and for a memorial of the aid given by the king of Tyre in the building of the temple and palace, but not a payment for service received. But what right, it has been asked, had Solomon to give away any part of the inheritance of the Lord’s people into the hands of a heathen king? According to the law (Leviticus 25:23) the land could not be sold forever; much less given away. We might answer, This was not the first nor the last instance in which this great king stepped aside from the law of Moses. Already, contrary to the express commands of the law, he had multiplied horses and chariots. But in this case the appearance of transgression largely disappears in the fact that these cities, when given to Hiram, were peopled not by Israelites but by heathens. Solomon may have regarded it as a prudent policy to hand over the government of these heathen cities, which were evidently of no great worth, to his friendly neighbour, who had rendered him so much service in building the Lord’s house.

Land of Galilee Not the entire province of this name as it existed under the Romans, but only the northern part of the land allotted to the tribe of Naphtali. Compare Joshua 20:7. According to Josephus, these twenty cities lay not far from Tyre.