The meaning of Barzillai in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
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 (II Samuel 17:27-29). When David was returning to Jerusalem after Absalom's defeat, Barzillai conducted him over Jordan, but being an old man of 80 years of age, he declined David's invitation to come to live in the capital, and sent instead his son Chimham (II Samuel 19:31-39). David before his death charged Solomon to "show kindness unto the sons of Barzillai." (I Kings 2:7). Cheyne in Encyclopedia Biblica, without giving any reason, differentiates this Barzillai from Barzillai the Gileadite (Ezra 2:61 = Nehemiah 7:63). See (2) below.
(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 (Ezra 2:61-62 = Nehemiah 7:63-64). His original name is given as Jaddus (the King James Version Addus) (1 Esdras 5:38). (See ZORZELLEUS; the Revised Version, margin "Phaezeldaeus.")
(3) Barzillai the Meholathite, whose son Adriel was married to Saul's daughter, either Michal (II Samuel 21:8) or Merab (I Samuel 18:19).
T. Rees
See more on the meaning of Barzillai in the Bible:
Barzillai {Easton's Bible Dictionary}
Barzillai {Hitchcock's Bible Name}
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