2 Samuel 19:36, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to the account of David's return to Jerusalem after Absalom's rebellion, among the detailed records of the difficulties of his reign. It falls within the return journey after his flight, a journey that touched the hearts of old friends.

In the verse Barzillai goes only a little way over Jordan with the king and asks why the king should recompense him with such a reward, expecting no reward for that brief service. His brief escort completes the loving and loyal service he had shown David in hardship and expresses his loyal support as the king returns after the rebellion. By this answer he declines the invitation to live at Jerusalem and returns instead to his ancestral home. He stands as an example of loyalty alongside biblical figures associated with defending and delivering Israel.

Barzillai speaks as an old man made unfit by the infirmities of age for the entertainments of the courts of earthly princes, and so declines the king's recompense. His age ends his time as a working servant but not as a waiting servant, for old servants of God are not dismissed from waiting on Him but are still required and accepted and must not desert His service. Those like Barzillai who cannot enjoy earthly courts may yet relish the pleasures of God's courts as much as ever, waiting quietly to give Him honor and receive comfort from Him until they inherit the promise, with God dearer as the happiness they wait for draws nearer.

The verse belongs to the history of David's later years after his wrongdoing against Uriah, covering 2 Samuel 11-19, which shows the fulfillment of Nathan's prophetic denunciation through judgments and retribution coming upon David chiefly through troubles in his own family. That retribution followed through all the rest of his life in kind for his wicked conduct toward Uriah, principally in his own family, including the sad history of Amnon and Tamar and the rebellion and unnatural crimes of Absalom. It proves that what a person sows will be reaped and that the very kind of evil caused to others comes back upon the wrongdoer, so it never pays to do wrong.