2 Samuel 19:37
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 behold thy servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good unto thee.
The verse stands in the history told in 2 Samuel 3 through 20, in the account of David's flight from Jerusalem, his victory over and defeat of Absalom, his lament and grief over his son, and his return to Jerusalem. That history records the retribution and judgments that followed David's wrong and wicked conduct toward Uriah through all the rest of his life, fulfilling Nathan's denunciation. The calamity came principally in David's own family and amid the difficulties he encountered, including the sad history of Amnon and Tamar, the rebellion and unnatural crimes of Absalom, Adonijah's rebellion and death, the sad consequences of his many wives and of sons he was unable to control, his troubles with Joab, and his numbering of the people.
The account is told with detailed faithfulness that stamps it with inspiration and shows that God does not hide the sins of even the greatest kings. The history teaches that transgressing God's laws brings suffering because each transgression carries its own curse. It proves that wrongdoing brings calamity and sorrow upon the wrongdoer, that the very kind of evil caused to others comes back upon oneself, that what a man sows he reaps, and that sin pays only in its own kind.
In the verse Barzillai, at eighty years old, declines the king's invitation to go to Jerusalem and live there, asking instead to turn back to his own city where he may die and be buried beside the grave of his father and mother. He has already completed his service by helping David and escorting him safely across the Jordan, and his loyalty and care for his king are shown in his willingness to see David safely onward before returning to his ancestral home, now made dearer by his good deeds. Through the infirmities of age he had become unfit for the entertainments of the courts of earthly princes.
The word for grave in the verse means a literal grave, the place where a person is buried. Chimham, David's friend, is offered to go over with the king, for the king to do to him what shall seem good to him. Barzillai's old age proves that old servants of God are not dismissed from waiting on him and are not cast off in time of old age, and they must not desert his service. When they can no longer be working servants they may still be waiting servants, with attendance still required and accepted, quietly giving honor to God and receiving comfort from him and relishing the pleasures of God's courts as much as ever, waiting with patience till they inherit the promise, with God dearer as the hoped-for eternal happiness draws nearer.
The wish to die in one's own city and be buried beside one's parents illustrates the natural desire for family members, including a mother and her children, to rest together in death, with the hope that they will rise together when the trumpet sounds.