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This word, when used in the A. V., does not bear its modern signification of a carrier of burdens, but denotes in every case a gatekeeper, from the Latin portarius, the man who attended to the porta. In the original the word is ùׁåֹòֵø or ùֹׁòֵø , shoer, from ùִׁòִø , shaar, a gate; once (Ezr_7:24) Chald. úָּøָò , tara', the same (Sept. èõñùñüò and ðõëùñüò ; Vulg. portarius and janitor). This meaning is evidently implied in 1Ch_9:21; 2Ch_23:19; 2Ch_35:15; Joh_10:3. It is generally employed in reference to the Levites who had charge of the entrances to the sanctuary, but is used also in other connections in 2Sa_18:26 : 2Ki_7:10-11; Mar_13:34; Joh_10:3; Joh_18:16-17. In two passages (1Ch_15:23-24) the Hebrew word is rendered “doorkeeper,” and in Joh_18:16-17, ἡ èõñùñὸò is “she that kept the door.” Thus, in 2Ki_7:10-11, and 2Sa_18:26, we meet with the porter at the gates of a town. In the palace of the high-priest (Joh_18:17) the porter was a female, ἡ ðáéäéóêç , ἡ èõñùñüò . See also Act_12:13. A porter seems to have been usually stationed at the doors of sheepfolds (Joh_10:3). According to Stier and others, this èõñùñὸò corresponds to the Holy Spirit, who opens the way for the true ministers of Christ. SEE DOOR.
The porters of the Temple, who were guards as well as porters, were very numerous in David's time; for in 1Ch_23:5 no less than 4000 are mentioned. They were divided into courses (1Ch_26:1-19), and had their post assigned them by lot (1Ch_26:13). Besides attending to the gates and keeping order there, they seem, as Lightfoot says, to have had charge of certain treasures (1Ch_26:15, comp. with 2Ch_25:24, and Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple, c. 5, § 6). Properly speaking, their office was in some respects military: they were the soldiers of Jehovah, and the guards of his Temple. The stations that were guarded were not all occupied by the same number-some being guarded by six, some by four, and others by two persons only. They were relieved every Sabbath-day by others who took their places (2Ki_11:5; 1Ch_9:17-29; 1Ch_16:42; 2Ch_8:14; 2Ch_23:4; 2Ch_31:14; 2Ch_35:15). Their service was required by night as well as by day, and a man called “the Man of the Mountain of the House” went round every night to see that all were in their places, and that none of them slept. If he found any one asleep he struck him, and had liberty to burn his clothes. To this Lightfoot thinks there is a reference in Rev_16:15 : “Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments” (Temple Service, c. 7 § 1). SEE TEMPLE.