Note 517 — Chapter VI · THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY (continued 3)

As Barzillai was already eighty years of age at the time of David’s flight (2 Sam. xix. 35), the death of David could not have happened very long after that event. That Joab and Abiathar were still vigorous implies the same thing. As for the authenticity of David’s dying instructions, there is no reason to question it. A later writer is not likely to have gratuitously credited them to David; and inconsistent though they may seem to us with David’s piety, they were in full keeping with his character as well as with that of other Israelites of his age. If they had been falsely ascribed to David by Solomon’s admirers after the murder of Joab and Shimei, Adonijah also would have been included among the victims.