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PORTER in EV [Note: English Version.] has always the sense of ‘doorkeeper’ (see House, § 6) or ‘gatekeeper’ (see Fortification and Siegecraft, § 5, end). In Joh_10:3 the porter is the man left in charge of a sheepfold by the shepherd or shepherds whose sheep are there housed for the night. In private houses the doorkeeper might be a woman (2Sa_4:6 as restored from LXX [Note: Septuagint.] , Act_12:13). In OT, however, porters are most frequently named in the Books of Chron., Ezr„ and Neh. in connexion with the Temple (1Ch_9:17 f. onwards), where they had charge of the various gates (see Temple, § 6, Priests and Levites, § iii. 1, 2). The same word is rendered doorkeepers in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] 1Ch_15:23 f., and in several other places in RV [Note: Revised Version.] (1Ch_15:19 etc.). It is to be regretted that this term was not substituted throughout. In Psa_84:10 the original is different, and should probably be rendered: ‘I had rather be [standing or lying] at the threshold in the house of my God.’
A. R. S. Kennedy.