Person Old Testament
Barzillai
Barzillai the Meholathite was the grandfather of the five sons Michal adopted. Mentioned once in Scripture, at 2 Samuel 21:8.
Why it matters. Grandfather of Michal's adopted sons.
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Barzillai
Barzillai the Meholathite is briefly mentioned in 2Sa.21.8 as the grandfather of the five sons whom Michal, Saul's daughter, had adopted. These five sons, born to Adriel son of Barzillai, were among the seven descendants of Saul who were handed over to the Gibeonites to be executed as a form of atonement for Saul's earlier mistreatment of the Gibeonites. The passage does not provide any further information about Barzillai the Meholathite himself, and he is not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. His inclusion in the text serves to identify the lineage of Michal's adopted sons and their connection to Saul's family.
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
No reviewed connections yet.
Family
Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.
- Children
- Adriel
Appears in Scripture
Named in 1 verse across 1 book. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.
2 Samuel (1 verse)