1 Chronicles 9:17

And the porters,.... Or keepers of the gates of the tabernacle: were Shallum, and Akkub, and Talmon, and Ahiman, and their brethren; Shallum was the chief; of these four porters, and their brethren.

And in Jerusalem dwelt of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim, and Manasseh; No JFB commentary on these verses.

Porters; whose office it was to keep all the gates of the temple, that no unclean person or thing might enter into it.

1 Chronicles 9:17 And the porters [were], Shallum, and Akkub, and Talmon, and Ahiman, and their brethren: Shallum [was] the chief;Ver. 17. Shallum was the chief.] He was overseer of the overseers of the porters.

(17) And the porters were, Shallum, and Akkub, and Talmon, and Ahiman.—Comp. Nehemiah 11:18-19, which sums up thus: “All the Levites in the holy city were two hundred fourscore and four. Moreover the porters, Akkub, Talmon, and their brethren that kept the gates, were an hundred seventy and two.” Shallum does not appear. Ahiman may have originated out of the following: Their brethren.—Heb., aheihem. Comp. also Nehemiah 12:25-26, where we are told that (Mattaniah and Bakbukiah, Obadiah and) Meshullam (i.e., Shallum), Talmon, and Akkub were porters keeping ward at the storehouses of the Temple gates, in the times of Joiakim son of Jeshua son of Jozadak, and of Nehemiah and Ezra. It is clear that the names of the porters likewise represent families or guilds, which had hereditary charge of the Temple gates. In fact, all the Levitical functions appear to have descended in the same families from father to son, like the various civil offices in the Roman empire; and tradition ascribed the entire arrangement to David, the second founder of the national worship. At this point the correspondence with Nehemiah 11 ceases. Shallum was the chief.—This really belongs to 1 Chronicles 9:18, and introduces a description of the duties of the Levites, which extends over 1 Chronicles 9:18-34. Translate, Shallum is the chief even unto this day in the king’s gate, on the east side. Shallum (“recompense”) is called “Shelemiah” (1 Chronicles 26:14), which, again, is a curtailment of Meshelemiah (“Jah recompenseth”), 1 Chronicles 26:1; 1 Chronicles 9:21 infra. The fact that Shallum—Meshelemiah—is spoken of as warder in David’s day as well as in the post-exilic age, proves that a guild or clan, not an individual, is in question. The eastern gate was the post of honour (Ezekiel 46:1-2), and the royal entry. The old name of the King’s Gate would naturally be retained in the restored Temple.

17–27 (cp. Nehemiah 11:19; 1 Chronicles 26:1-19). Organisation and Duties of the Porters (Doorkeepers) 17. porters] Render, doorkeepers as in 1 Chronicles 16:38 and 1 Chronicles 26:1 (R.V.). In Solomon’s Temple there were “keepers of the threshold,” three in number (2 Kings 25:18), priests in rank (ibid. 1 Chronicles 12:9). Shallum … Ahiman] These two names are absent from Nehemiah 11:19 together with the clause Shallum was the chief. This omission of all reference to Shallum must be accidental. Shallum, Akkub and Talmon] The three names represent families, not individuals; cp. Ezra 2:41 = Nehemiah 7:45, where the fuller form is given, the children of Shallum, … the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub.… These names persist in the five lists of porters which refer to post-exilic times; Ezra 2:42 = Nehemiah 7:45; Nehemiah 11:19 = 1 Chronicles 9:17 (Shallum is to be supplied in Neh. from Chron.); Nehemiah 12:5 (Meshullam = Shallum). When however the reference is to the days of David the prominent names are Meshelemiah = Shelemiah (= Shallum?), Obed-edom, and Hosah; 1 Chronicles 15:18; 1 Chronicles 15:24; 1 Chronicles 16:38; 1 Chronicles 26:1; 1 Chronicles 26:4; 1 Chronicles 26:10. Ahiman] Elsewhere in the O.T. this name occurs only among the names of the sons of Anak, and it is probable that the Chronicler (or some scribe) made here an error of transcription, and that Ahiman has arisen from the word aheihem “their brethren” which follows.