Matthew Henry on 1 Chronicles 26:1-19
Observe, I. There were porters appointed to attend the temple, who guarded all the avenues that let to it, opened and shut all the outer gates and attended at them, not only for the state, but for service, to direct and instruct those who were going to worship in the courts of the sanctuary in the decorum they were to observe, to encourage those that were timorous, to send back the strangers and unclean, and to guard against thieves and others that were enemies to the house of God. In allusion to this office, ministers are said to have the keys to the kingdom of heaven committed to them (Mat 16:19), that they may admit, and exclude, according to the law of Christ.
II. Of several of those tha…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Chronicles 26:10
Simri the chief . . . though . . . not the first-born--probably because the family entitled to the right of primogeniture had died out, or because there were none of the existing families which could claim that right.
Adam Clarke on 1 Chronicles 26:6
They were mighty men of valor - They were not only porters or door-keepers in the ordinary sense of the word, but they were a military guard for the gates: and perhaps in this sense alone we are to understand their office.
John Gill on 1 Chronicles 26:11
Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth; all the sons and brethren of Hosah were thirteen. Four sons, and nine brethren or kinsmen.
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Chronicles 26:11
And they cast lots,.... To determine at which gate each should stand, who at this gate, and who at the other, &c.
as well the small as the great, according to the house of their fathers, for every gate; meaning, not little ones and grown persons in a family, but the smaller and poorer families, and the larger and richer ones, had their places assigned them at the several gates, as the lot directed; they did not go according to the dignity and precedence of their families, but according to lot.
