1 Kings 9:12-14

9:12 When Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the cities Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. ¹  9:13 Hiram asked, ²  “Why did you give me these cities, my friend ³ ?” He called that area the region of Cabul, a name which it has retained to this day. ⁴  9:14 Hiram had sent to the king one hundred twenty talents ⁵  of gold.

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¹ tn Heb “they were not agreeable in his eyes.”

² tn Heb “and he said.”

³ tn Heb “my brother.” Kings allied through a parity treaty would sometimes address each other as “my brother.” See 1 Kgs 20:32-33.

⁴ tn Heb “he called them the land of Cabul to this day.” The significance of the name is unclear, though it appears to be disparaging. The name may be derived from a root, attested in Akkadian and Arabic, meaning “bound” or “restricted.” Some propose a wordplay, pointing out that the name “Cabul” sounds like a Hebrew phrase meaning, “like not,” or “as good as nothing.”

⁵ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 9,000 pounds of gold (cf. NCV, NLT); CEV “five tons”; TEV “4,000 kilogrammes.”