1 Könige 9:13

13 Und er sprach: Was sind das für Städte, die du mir gegeben hast, mein Bruder! Und er nannte sie das Land Kabul bis auf diesen Tag.

1 Könige 9:13 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 9:13

And he said
By letter to him:

what cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother?
so he called him, being not only his neighbour, but his ally, in friendship and covenant with him; and this he said of them not by way of complaint, or contempt, as unworthy of his acceptance; for so munificent a prince as Solomon would never offer to a king to whom he was so much obliged anything mean and contemptible; but as being unsuitable to him, however valuable they might be in themselves, or of advantage to others:

and he called them the land of Cabul unto this day;
or rather the words should be rendered impersonally, "they were called so"; for Hiram could not call them by this name to the times of the writer of this book; nor is there any reason to think he would give them any name at all, and much less a contemptible one, as this is thought to be, when he did not choose to accept of them. Some interpret ^F7 the word shut up, or unfruitful, sandy, dirty, clayey; so in the Talmud ^F8 it is said to be a sandy land, and called Cabul, because a man's foot was plunged in it up to his ankles, and is represented as unfruitful. Josephus ^F9 says, in the Phoenician tongue it signifies "not pleasing", which agrees with what Hiram says, ( 1 Kings 9:12 ) . Hillerus ^F11 interprets it "as nothing", they being as nothing to Hiram, of no use to him, whatever they might be to others; and therefore he restored them to Solomon, ( 2 Chronicles 8:2 ) , which seems to be the best sense of the word. They are the same with Decapolis, ( Matthew 4:25 ) so called from ten cities therein ^F12.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 David de Pomis, Lexic fol. 58. 2.
F8 T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 54. 1.
F9 Antiqu. l. 8. c. 5. sect. 3.
F11 Onomastic. Sacr. p. 435.
F12 Vid. Castel Lex Heptaglot. col. 1669. & Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 18.

1 Könige 9:13 In-Context

11 Hiram, der König von Tyrus, hatte Salomo mit Zedernholz und mit Zypressenholz und mit Gold nach all seinem Begehr unterstützt damals gab der König Salomo dem Hiram zwanzig Städte im Lande Galiläa.

12 Und Hiram zog von Tyrus aus, um die Städte zu besehen, die Salomo ihm gegeben hatte; und sie waren nicht recht in seinen Augen.

13 Und er sprach: Was sind das für Städte, die du mir gegeben hast, mein Bruder! Und er nannte sie das Land Kabul bis auf diesen Tag.

14 Hiram hatte nämlich dem König hundertzwanzig Talente Gold gesandt.

15 Und dies ist die Sache mit der Fron, welche der König Salomo aushob, um das Haus Jehovas zu bauen und sein Haus und das Millo und die Mauer von Jerusalem, und Hazor und Megiddo und Geser.