(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 1Chronicles 9:18, and introduces a description of the duties of the Levites, which extends over 1Chronicles 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" (1Chronicles 26:14), which, again, is a curtailment of Meshelemiah ("Jah recompenseth"), 1Chronicles 26:1; 1Chronicles 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.

Verse 17. - The porters here are those who had charge of the entrances to the sanctuary. The word employed (שֹׁעֵר) is used, however, generally of gate or door keepers (2 Samuel 17:26; John 10:3; Mark 13:3, 4; John 18:16). Their number, stated in ver. 22 as two hundred and twelve, is probably corrected in Nehemiah 11:19 to one hundred and seventy-two, made up of twenty-four for every week (1 Chronicles 26:17, 18), "entering on the sabbath" upon their work (2 Kings 11:5; 2 Chronicles 23:4), in rotation for seven weeks, and the four "chief warders." For the five porters here mentioned there are only two mentioned in Nehemiah 11:19, and neither of those Shallum, the chief. But see also Ezra 2:42; Nehemiah 7:45.

9:1-44 Genealogies. - This chapter expresses that one end of recording all these genealogies was, to direct the Jews, when they returned out of captivity, with whom to unite, and where to reside. Here is an account of the good state into which the affairs of religion were put, on the return from Babylon. Every one knew his charge. Work is likely to be done well when every one knows the duty of his place, and makes a business of it. God is the God of order. Thus was the temple a figure of the heavenly one, where they rest not day nor night from praising God, Re 4:8. Blessed be His name, believers there shall, not in turn, but all together, without interruption, praise him night and day: may the Lord make each of us fit for the inheritance of the saints in light.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.