BARZILLAI bär zĭl’ ī (בַּרְזִלָּ֑י, bār-zillay, LXX, Βερζελλι, iron or of iron). 1. An aged and wealthy Gileadite of Rogelim who, with Shobi of Ammon and Machir of Lo-debar, brought provisions to David and his army at Mahanaim while they were fleeing from Absalom (2 Sam 17:27). After David defeated Absalom and was returning to Jerusalem, Barzillai escorted him over the Jordan, but, because of his age, declined the king’s invitation to come and live at the capital. In his place he sent his son, Chimham (19:31-39).

In his charge to Solomon when the latter succeeded his father as king of the United Kingdom, David urged Solomon to show kindness to Barzillai’s sons for their father’s loyalty to David at Mahanaim (1 Kings 2:7).

2. The father of a family of priests who came to Jerusalem in the return from exile under Joshua and Zerubbabel in 538 b.c. The priestly family was deemed polluted and forbidden to partake of holy food because they could not trace their genealogy to prove they belonged to Israel. Barzillai had taken his name from his wife’s family when he married a daughter (a daughter five centuries later) of Barzillai, the Gileadite. His unclean status was to remain until there should be a priest who could consult Urim and Thummim (Ezra 2:61-63; cf. Neh 7:63-64); 1 Esdras 5:38 gives his name as Jaddus.

3. The Meholathite whose son married Merab, Saul’s daughter, and whose five grandsons were given to the Gibeonites to avenge Saul’s blood guilt (2 Sam 21:8, 9).