Search
Barzillai
BARZILLAI (bar-zĭl'ā-ī, Heb. bārzillay, made of iron)
A wealthy Gileadite of Rogelim, east of the Jordan, who brought provisions to David and his army when the king fled from Absalom (
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 (
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 (
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 (
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 (
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
bar-zil’-a-i, bar-zil’-i (barzillay; Berzelli, "man of iron" (BDB, but compare Cheyne, Encyclopedia Biblica)):
(1) A Gileadite of Rogelim who brought provisions to David and his army to Mahanaim, in their flight from Absalom (
(2) The father of a family of priests who in Ezra’s time, after the return of the exiles, could not trace their genealogy. "Therefore were they deemed polluted and put from the priesthood." This Barzillai had taken "a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite," and had adopted his wife’s family name (
(3) Barzillai the Meholathite, whose son Adriel was married to Saul’s daughter, either Michal (