2. The name applied to a Galilean district of 20 cities given by Solomon to King Hiram of Tyre, the gift likely deriving from Solomon’s appreciation for Hiram’s assistance in his building program. Hiram, however, on inspecting the cities, found them “not just right in his eyes,” saying to Solomon: “What sort of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” Thereafter they came to be called “the Land of Cabul.”​—1Ki 9:10-13.

At any rate his displeasure with them resulted in their receiving the name “the Land of Cabul.” The meaning of Cabul in this text has been a subject of considerable discussion. Josephus (as above) says that Cabul “in the Phoenician tongue is interpreted to mean ‘not pleasing,’” but modern scholars find no other evidence to support this interpretation. Lexicographers generally advance the suggestion that a form of pun is involved, Cabul being used in the sense of the similar-sounding Hebrew phrase kevalʹ, meaning “as good as nothing.”