What was Cabul in the Bible? PhD says: Two different towns

Cabul is a region of lower Galilee, in the north of what is now modern-day Israel. The words Cabul and Kabul seem to be the same place, as they are different ways of spelling the Hebrew word כבול. The name is mentioned in two places in the Bible. The first is in Joshua 19:27, where it is assigned to the tribe of Asher during the distribution of the different regions to the respective tribes of Israel, but there isn’t much that’s said about it in the book of Joshua.

More interestingly, the word seems to appear again in 1 Kings in a longer episode related to Solomon’s building of the temple. Solomon, the famous son of David and king of Israel, endeavored to build a glorious temple to God, and contracted out all kinds of labor and building supplies from many neighboring kings. One of these was the king of Tyre, Hiram, who is said to have “supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and gold he wanted” (1 King / 3 Kingdoms 9:11). In return, Solomon gave the king “twenty towns in Galilee,” but upon visiting the towns, the king was displeased with them. He said:

“‘What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?’ he asked. And he called them the Land of Kabul, a name they have to this day.” 1 Kings / 3 Kingdoms 9:13

Kabul according to Josephus, an ancient writer

Scholars have speculated about the connection between these two places. Kabul could be a derivative of the Aramic word mekubbal, which means “clad,” possibly a reference to what the inhabitants of the land wore. But another clue comes from the fact that the king called these cities “kabul” out of his displeasure with them, as kabul in the Phoenician language means “what does not please.”

The famous Roman Jewish historian Josephus holds this opinion. His commentary is more or less the same as the Biblical story:

“When Solomon had completed all this in twenty years' time, because Hiram King of Tyre had contributed a great deal of gold, and more silver to these buildings, as also cedar wood and pine wood, he also rewarded Hiram with rich presents... [...] And besides these, he granted him certain cities of Galilee, twenty in number, that lay not far from Tyre; which, when Hiram went to, and viewed, and did not like the gift, he sent word to Solomon that he did not want such cities as they were; and after that time these cities were called the land of Cabul” (Antiquities of the Jews 8.5.3)

Josephus gives what has become the standard explanation for the naming of these cities. The king of Tyre literally calls them “that which does not please,” and the name stuck. This method of naming is similar to how street names in cities evolve over time. “Orchard Lane” might not have an orchard on it right now, but there was originally one there, and so that’s how everyone referred to that road. For the same reason, almost every city has a Main Street or Central Avenue—probably because when the town was first built, there was only one paved road or only one main road at all.

But why did Solomon give a group of cities to the king of Tyre in the first place? Our article on the Algum wood that the king of Tyre gave to Solomon gets a little more into it.

What was Afghanistan called in the Bible?

Confusingly, Kabul is also the name of the capital city of Afghanistan. The city has been known by a variety of names and spellings over the centuries, including Kubha (in Sanskrit) and Kophen or Kophes (in Greek). One legend attributes the origin of the name to the Persian words “kah” and “pul”, meaning a bridge made out of straw.

While it’s tempting to see the name Kabul in the Bible and think that it was the ancient or Biblical name for Afghanistan, the resemblance between the two is purely coincidental. The place mentioned in the Bible is a northern region of Israel, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, while the modern-day capital of Afghanistan is in Afghanistan, some 2,500 miles to the east! That’s a little longer than the distance from coast to coast in the United States. Despite the similarity in name and region, the Biblical authors certainly did not mean Afghanistan.