24. On the four sides] Fuller details are given in xxvi. 14–18.
²⁵And their brethren, in their villages, were to come in every seven days from time to time to be with them:
25. in their villages] No special villages inhabited by porters are mentioned, but perhaps porters as well as singers dwelt in the “villages of the Netophathites” (verse 16; Nehemiah xii. 28, Revised Version).
²⁶for the four chief porters, who were Levites, were in a set office, and were over the chambers and over the treasuries in the house of God. ²⁷And they lodged round about the house of God, because the charge thereof was upon them, and to them pertained the opening thereof morning by morning.
26. the four chief porters, who were Levites] It seems clear from this verse (and from the structure of the chapter, compare verses 10, 14, 17—as is pointed out in the note on verse 17) that the doorkeepers were not, as a body, Levites; and according to verse 25 they dwelt outside Jerusalem, whilst their leaders (verse 27) were within the city. Perhaps this distinction between the leaders and the rank and file could be used to explain the supposed inconsistency (if any exists—see above verse 22, note on whom David ...) between verses 19 and 22, as regards the tradition of origin: it might be said that whilst the leaders claimed that their office dated from the time of Moses (verse 19), the rank and file traced their institution to David (verse 22). (In 2 Chronicles xxxiv. 9 Levites appear exercising the duties of doorkeepers, but this does not prove that all doorkeepers were Levites.)
chambers] i.e. store-chambers in which tithes and sacred vessels were kept; compare 2 Chronicles xxxi. 5, 11, 12; Nehemiah xiii. 4–9: in verse 33 of this chapter they seem to be in use also as rooms in which Levites could dwell. The chambers were probably built as outbuildings round the Court of the Temple; compare xxiii. 28, xxviii. 12.
28, 29.
Duties of the Levites.
²⁸And certain of them had charge of the vessels of service; for by tale were they brought in and by tale were they taken out.
28. And certain of them] The reference is to the Levites. The contents of verses 28, 29 clearly refer to Levitical duties (compare xxiii. 29), and the transition from porters to Levites is made easier by the fact that the four porters last mentioned (verses 26, 27) are Levites. Some commentators hold that the paragraph dealing with the duties of the Levites begins in verse 26 with the words “And they were over,” etc.
²⁹Some of them also were appointed over the furniture, and over all the vessels of the sanctuary, and over the fine flour, and the wine, and the oil, and the frankincense, and the spices.