Solomon’s Agreement with Hiram

¹⁰ It took Solomon twenty years to build the Lord’s Temple and his own royal palace. At the end of that time, ¹¹ he gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre. (Hiram had previously provided all the cedar and cypress timber and gold that Solomon had requested.) ¹² But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns Solomon had given him, he was not at all pleased with them. ¹³ “What kind of towns are these, my brother?” he asked. So Hiram called that area Cabul (which means “worthless”), as it is still known today. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, Hiram paid^[a] Solomon 9,000 pounds^[b] of gold.