CABUL kā’ bəl (כָּב֖וּל [1] in Joshua 19:27, LXX [B] Χωβα; [A] Χαἔώλ; Vul. CABUL; Luther KABUL; KJV CABUL; RSV CABUL; [2] in 1 Kings 9:13 LXX ὅριον, G3990; Vul. CHABUL; Luther KABUL; KJV and RSV CABUL). Both כָּב֖וּל and ὅριον, G3990, signify district.

1. A town on E boundary of Asher (Josh 19:27). Perhaps Χαβωλώ in Jos. (Life xliii. 44). Modern Kâbûl nestled among the hills c. four hours (nine m.) ESE of Acre. Cabul is not to be identified with kabura in the Ramses III list (no. 23); kabura is farther S.

2. A district in N Galilee comprising twenty “cities” which Solomon ceded to Hiram (1 Kings 9:13) as partial payment for helping build the Temple at Jerusalem. When Hiram saw this remuneration he was so dissatisfied that he called it “the land of Cabul”—which in popular etymology perhaps meant “good as nothing” (BDB 459), i.e., “worthless.” Since the Phoenicians were a seafaring people it is possible that Hiram preferred coastal towns; or maybe the comparative barrenness of the hill country displeased him; or perhaps the cities were very dilapidated. Hiram (Huram) apparently returned the cities and Solomon rebuilt them (2 Chron 8:2).

Bibliography B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt (eds.), New Classical Fragments, and other Greek and Latin Papyri, II (1897), 15.3; B. P. Grenfell, A. S. Hunt, and D. G. Hogarth (eds.), Fayûm Towns and their Papyri (1900), 38.6; B. P. Grenfell, A. S. Hunt, and E. J. Goodspeed (eds.), The Tebtunis Papyri, II (1902-1907), 277. 15; Aegyptische Urkunden aus den königlichen Museen zu Berlin: Griechische Urkunden, II (1895-1926), 616.6; ibid., IV, 1049.9; F. M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine, II (1938), 14, 287.