1 Kings 9:10-14
"10 At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house, 11 and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.12 But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. 13 Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul to this day. 14 Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents of gold."
The exact significance of this transaction is not quite clear, but it would seem that Solomon had ceded cities to Hiram in return for his help in men, materials, and gold, for the building of the Temple. But the cities, apparently in a state of neglect and disrepair, did not satisfy Hiram, and he made his protest to Solomon in the words of 13. The cities must have been returned to Israel, as we may gather from 2 Chronicles 8:1, 2, for he rebuilt them, and settled Israelites in them. There are two points here. Firstly, it seems as if Solomon was guilty of niggardly conduct in offering some ramshackle cities to his friend and ally for all the help he had received from him, and Hiram's reproachful words, marked by such courtesy and restraint, show Solomon in a bad light. This must have displeased God. But in the second place, what would have displeased Him even more was the unwarranted cession of so many cities of the Promised Land, dilapidated though they were, to someone outside the covenant. It was an action at cross purposes with the whole strategy of God, which was to extend, not diminish, the boundaries of Israel according to promise. God frustrated Solomon's intentions in no uncertain fashion and made him smart for his error. No-one can cross the divine will with impunity.