With the death of its leader, the rebellion against David may be said to have ended; but to the sorrow-stricken father victory at such a price seemed an almost greater calamity than defeat would have been.  And it needed the strong, almost harsh, remonstrances of Joab to rouse him from his grief, and lead him to think of his duty to his people.  At length, however, the homeward journey began, the king following the same route by which so shortly before he had fled, until he came to the banks of the Jordan, where a ferry-boat was in readiness to take him and his household across (2 Sam. xix. 18).  Before, however, he crossed, several interesting interviews took place.  Shimei, who had cursed so shamelessly on the day of misfortune, was forgiven, and received the promise of protection; Mephibosheth was restored to the king’s favour, and his old place at the king’s table; and, what specially concerns us at present, David had his final parting with Barzillai.

The loyal chieftain, notwithstanding his eighty years, had come all the way from his upland farm to bid farewell to his king, and see him safely over Jordan.  And as David remarked the old man’s devotion, and remembered his former favours, the wish seized him to attach him still more closely to his person. “Come thou over with me,” he said, “and I will feed thee with me in Jerusalem” (2 Sam. xix. 33).  It was from one point of view a dazzling offer.  Barzillai had seen enough of David to know that what the king said he meant, and that if he chose to go with him, honour and position awaited him at the court.  But he would not be moved.  His grey hairs, if nothing else, stood in the way. “How long have I to live,” he answered, “that I should go up with the king unto Jerusalem?” (verse 34).  I am too old, that is, for such a life as would there be expected of me.  And, after all, why should conduct such as mine meet with so great a reward?  No! let me go a little way over Jordan with the king, and then “Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and of my mother.” “But,” he hastened to add, as if anxious to show that he appreciated to the full the king’s generous offer, and saw the advantages it presented to those who were able to enjoy them, “behold thy servant Chimham,” my son, “let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good unto thee” (verse 37).  With a plea so expressed, David could not but acquiesce:  “The king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned unto his own place . . . and Chimham went on with him” (verses 39, 40), to become famous as the founder of a caravanserai, or halting-place for pilgrims on the road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which for at least four centuries continued to bear his name (Jer. xli. 17) and which may even, it has been conjectured, have been the same which, at the time of the Christian era “furnished shelter for two travellers with their infant child, when ’there was no room in the inn.’"[2]