David having won the battle, and recovered his throne, prepares to repass the Jordan, and return once more to his capital. His friends again congregate around him, for the prosperous have many friends. Amongst them, however, were some who had been true to him in the day of his adversity; and the aged Barzillai, a Gileadite, who had provided the King with sustenance whilst he lay at Mahanaim, and when his affairs were critical, presents himself before him. He had won David’s heart.
The King now entreats him to accompany him to his court, “Come thou over with me, and I will feed thee with me in Jerusalem.” But the unambitious Barzillai pleads fourscore years as a bar against beginning the life of a courtier, and chooses rather to die in his own city, and be buried by the grave of his father and of his mother. His son, however, had life before him: “Behold thy servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good unto thee. And the king answered, Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good unto thee.” (2 Samuel 19:37). So he went with the king.
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Author: John James Blunt
Keywords: Chimham, Bethlehem, David and Chimham
Bible reference(s): 2 Sam. 19:37, Jeremiah 41:17
Source: Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings of the Old & New Testament (London: John Murray, 1869).
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.