to know that what the king said he meant, and that if he chose to go
with him, honour and position awaited him at the court. But he would
not be moved. His grey hairs, if nothing else, stood in the way.
"_How long have I to live_," he answered, "_that I should go up with
the king unto Jerusalem_?" (verse 34). I am too old, that is, for such
a life as would there be expected of me. And, after all, why should
conduct such as mine meet with so great a reward? No! let me go a
little way over Jordan with the king, and then "_Let thy servant, I
pray thee, turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be
buried by the grave of my father and of my mother_." "_But_," he
hastened to add, as if anxious to show that he appreciated to the full
the king's generous offer, and saw the advantages it presented to those
who were able to enjoy them, "_behold thy servant Chimham_," my son,
"_let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem
good unto thee_" (verse 37). With a plea so expressed, David could not
but acquiesce: "_The king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he
returned unto his own place . . . and Chimham went on with him_"
(verses 39, 40), to become famous as the founder of a caravanserai, or
halting-place for pilgrims on the road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem,
which for at least four centuries continued to bear his name (Jer. xli.
17) and which may even, it has been conjectured, have been the same
which, at the time of the Christian era "furnished shelter for two
travellers with their infant child, when 'there was no room in the
inn.'"[2]

Round Barzillai's own name no such associations have gathered. After
his parting with David we do not hear of him again, if we except a
passing reference in David's dying instructions to Solomon, to "_shew
kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite_" (1 Kings ii. 7),
and the mention, as late as the return from Babylon, of a family of