John Gill Commentary 1 Kings 9:11

"(now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar-trees and fir-trees, and with gold, according to all his desire), that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee." — 1 Kings 9:11 (ASV)

(Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with
cedar trees and fir trees
For the building of both his houses; see ( 1 Kings 5:8 1 Kings 5:10) ,

and with gold, according to all his desire) :
which is not before mentioned, and accounts for it from where Solomon had his gold; if he made no use, as some think he did not, of what his father left him; see (1 Kings 7:51) with which he covered several parts of the temple, and made several vessels in it. Hiram traded to Ophir, and had it from there; and he could supply Solomon with it, and did, before he sent a navy thither:

that then Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee ;
that is, by or near it, for they were not in the land of Canaan; for then Solomon could not have disposed of them, being allotted and belonging to one of the tribes of Israel, and part of the Lord's inheritance; but they were upon the borders, particularly on the borders of Asher, if Cabul in (Joshua 19:27) , can be thought to be the same with these;

though some think that Solomon did not give Hiram the possession of these cities, but the royalties and revenues of them, their produce until the debt was paid: but they rather seem to be a gratuity, and a full grant of them, and might be cities which David had conquered, and taken out of the hands of the ancient inhabitants of them; and so Solomon had a right to dispose of them, being left him by his father; for it is plain as yet they were not inhabited by Israelites; see (2 Chronicles 8:2) . They are by a Jewish writer ^F6 said to be twenty two, very wrongly.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F6: Gloss. in T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 54. 1.