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 priests who traced their descent to a marriage with the Gileadite’s daughter, and prided themselves on the distinctive title of “the children of Barzillai” (Ezra ii. 61).  But in the absence of anything to the contrary, we may be allowed to conjecture that, full of years and experience, surrounded by all the love which his useful, helpful life had called forth, Barzillai died in peace among his own people, and was buried, as he had himself desired, by his parents’ grave.

Such, then, is the story of Barzillai’s life, so far as the Bible reveals it to us.  It is, as I have already said, as an old man that he is principally brought before us, and in thinking of his character further, it may be well to do so from this point of view, and see what he has to teach us regarding a true old age.  Four points at least stand out clearly from the Bible narrative.

I.

Barzillai was evidently by nature a warm-hearted, sunshiny old man, himself happy and making others happy.

David himself was such a man before the great sin which brought a trouble and a sorrow into his life that he was never again able wholly to surmount.  And it may have been the sight of his own lost gaiety and lightness of spirit in the aged Gileadite that first drew out his heart to him.

It may be said, perhaps, that it was easy for Barzillai to be cheerful.  The sun had shone on him very brightly:  the good things of life had fallen very freely to his share.  He was, according to the Bible record, “a very great man” (2 Sam. xix. 32), evidently a most successful farmer, rich in flocks and herds, looked up and respected in the district in which he lived.  But after all, is it the universal, or even the general, experience that wealth and power are associated with simple cheerfulness and happiness?  Could anything, for example, have exceeded the bitterness and the boorishness of the other rich flockmaster whom David’s youths, with Eastern frankness, had asked, “Give, we pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David” “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse?” burst out Nabal in a fury. “Shall I then take my bread, and my water . . . and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be?” (1 Sam. xxv. 8, 10, 11).  And even if that be an extreme instance, it will not be denied that outward blessings in themselves, and considered only by themselves, are apt to have a hardening rather than a softening effect.  It says much, therefore, for Barzillai, that amidst his great possessions, he still kept the free, open, happy disposition of youth.