2nd and 3rd battalions off duty, but brought into the house of the Lord (the Temple) by Jehoiada (verse 7).
(ii) 2 Chronicles xxiii. 4, 5.
(Levites in three bands.)
Band I (= 1st battalion C company of 2 Kings) in the house of God, the Chronicler supposing that “the house” (2 Kings xi. 6) means the house of the Lord. More probably it means “the house of the king” (2 Kings xi. verse 5).
Band II (= 1st battalion A company of 2 Kings) at the king’s house (so 2 Kings).
Band III (= 1st battalion B company of 2 Kings) at the gate of “the foundation.”
(The Chronicler passes over the 2nd and 3rd battalions, because he has already assigned their duty to 1st battalion C company.).
of the priests and of the Levites] Not in Kings. The words are a mistaken but intentional gloss of the Chronicler, for it is clear that in Kings lay guards are meant.
porters of the doors] margin, of the thresholds, i.e. of the Temple according to the Chronicler, for the word for “doors” (or “thresholds,” sippim in Hebrew) is always used for the thresholds of some sanctuary, e.g. of the Tabernacle (1 Chronicles ix. 19, 22), of the Temple of Solomon (2 Chronicles iii. 7), of (apparently) some Israelite shrine (Amos ix. 1). In the parallel passage (2 Kings xi. 6) however “the watch of the house” clearly means “the watch of the king’s house” (2 Kings xi. verse 5).
⁵and a third part shall be at the king’s house; and a third part at the gate of the foundation: and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the Lord.