2 Samuel 19:34

34 Barzillai said to the king, How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Yerushalayim?

2 Samuel 19:34 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 19:34

And Barzillai said unto the king
In answer to the grateful proposal he made:

how long have I to live;
that could not be said with exactness by any; but it might be probably conjectured from the age he was of, and the infirmities that attended him, that he could not live long; it was but a short time he had to be in the world:

that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?
take so long a journey as that, seeing he might die before he got thither; and if he did not, since it could not be thought he should live long, he could not think of it, or judge it advisable at such an age to take such a journey, change his place of abode, and manner of living.

2 Samuel 19:34 In-Context

32 Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even eighty years old: and he had provided the king with sustenance while he lay at Machanayim; for he was a very great man.

33 The king said to Barzillai, Come you over with me, and I will sustain you with me in Yerushalayim.

34 Barzillai said to the king, How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Yerushalayim?

35 I am this day eighty years old: can I discern between good and bad? can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?

36 Your servant would but just go over the Yarden with the king: and why should the king recompense it me with such a reward?