Cabul (), classical spelling: Chabolo; Chabulon, is a location in the

Lower Galilee The Lower Galilee (; ) is a region within the Northern District of Israel. The Lower Galilee is bordered by the Jezreel Valley to the south; the Upper Galilee to the north, from which it is separated by the Beit HaKerem Valley; the Jordan Rift ...

mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

local council in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, 9 or east of Acco.

History

Bronze and Iron ages

Cabul is first mentioned as one of the landmarks on the boundary of

Asher Asher ( ''’Āšēr''), in the Book of Genesis, was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Zilpah, and Jacob's eighth son overall. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Asher. Name The text of the Torah states that the name אָ� ...

, in .

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

refers to it as "the village of Chabolo situated in the confines of Ptolemais", and was the western border of

before joining the Phoenician coast. It was assigned to the

Tribe of Asher According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Asher was one of the Tribes of Israel descended from Asher (), the eighth son of Jacob. It is one of the ten lost tribes. Biblical narrative According to the biblical Book of Joshua, following the comp ...

. The name "Kabul" may have been derived from the

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

word ''mekubbal'', which means "clad", as in the inhabitants were "clad" in gold and silver.Vilnay, Zev. (2003).
Legends of Palestine
'. Kessinger Publishing, p.406. King

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

handed over a district in the north-west of

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

near Tyre, containing twenty cities, to

Hiram I Hiram I ( Phoenician: 𐤇𐤓𐤌 ''Ḥirōm'' "my brother is exalted"; Hebrew: חירם ''Ḥīrām''; also called ''Hirom'' or ''Huram'')Tyre, in repayment for his help in building

Solomon's Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (), was a biblical Temple in Jerusalem believed to have existed between the 10th and 6th centuries Common Era, BCE. Its description is largely based on narratives in the Hebrew Bible, in which it ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. Hiram was not pleased with the gift, however, and called them "the land of Cabul", the name signifying "good for nothing". The writer of 1 Kings 9 says they were called by this name "to this day". Josephus interprets "Cabul" as meaning "what does not please" (in Phoenician) but doubt has been cast on this interpretation of the term. The

Pulpit Commentary The ''Pulpit Commentary'' is a homiletic commentary on the Bible first published between 1880 and 1919

suggests they were unacceptable because "really they were mere villages". Archaeological excavations at Khirbet Rosh Zayit, located 2km northeast of modern

Kabul, Israel Kabul (, ) is an Arab town in the Northern District of Israel, southeast of Acre and north of Shefa-'Amr. In it had a population of . History Classical era Kabul is probably the Biblical Cabul mentioned in the Book of Joshua. Fragments ...

, have revealed an Israelite settlement from the 12th century BCE, and built upon it a Phoenician fortification from the 10th century BCE. The excavator suggests that this is evidence of Solomon's transfer of the area to Tyrian control.

Classical era

describes Cabul as being "the place that divides the country of Ptolemais from our nation" (''

War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

'' II 18:503). The architecture of Cabul, unlike other cities of the Galilee, was similar to that of Tyre, Sidon, and Beirut. In the

First Jewish–Roman War The First Jewish–Roman War (66–74 CE), also known as the Great Jewish Revolt, the First Jewish Revolt, the War of Destruction, or the Jewish War, was the first of three major Jewish rebellions against the Roman Empire. Fought in the prov ...

, Cabul was attacked by

Cestius Gallus Gaius Cestius Gallus (d. 67 AD) was a Roman senator and general who was active during the Principate. He was suffect consul for the second '' nundinium'' of the year 42 as the colleague of Gaius Caecina Largus. Gallus was the son of Gaius Cestius ...

in 66 CE. Upon the approach of the Roman army, the inhabitants of Cabul (, translated in some English texts as ''Zabulon'') had fled the city, while the soldiery were given leave to plunder and burn the city. For a time it served as Josephus' headquarters in Galilee in 67 CE. Judah and Hillel, sons of R. Gamaliel III, were received as guests in Cabul with great honor and paid a visit to a local bath. It was the home of a Rabbi Zakkai, and was famous for its abundance of wine and oil; it also had a synagogue and public baths. After the fall of Jerusalem, priests of the Shecaniah (Shekhanyah) family settled there.

Middle Ages

In the Crusader

Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom, was one of the Crusader states established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1 ...

, it was the seat of a seigniory known as Cabor.Jewish Virtual Library
Cabul
accessed 8 October 2017

Aftermath

In 2010, an archaeological survey of Cabul was conducted by Omar Zidan on behalf of the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

(IAA).

Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2010
Survey Permit # A-5956

References

{{Towns depopulated during the First Jewish–Roman War Hebrew Bible places Ancient Jewish settlements of Galilee Medieval sites in Israel Hiram I Solomon