1 Chronicles 26:18

At (the) Parbar westward. — See 2 Kings 23:11, where a plural Parwârîm occurs. The meaning of the word is unknown. According to Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 1123), “Parwâr” is the right spelling; and the term answers to a Persian word denoting “summer-house,” i.e., a building open to light and air. He makes “the Parbar” a cloister running round the court of the Temple, from which the cells were entered. (See Note on 1 Chronicles 23:28.) Both spellings occur in Persian. Richardson’s Persian Dictionary gives as many as fifteen variant forms of the word, besides Parwâr and Parbâr. His definition of the meaning is, “an open gallery or balcony on the top of a house, au upper room open on all sides to the air; a summer department or habitation; the roof of a house; a private door or entrance to a house.”

At the causeway. — That is, the highway of 1 Chronicles 26:16. These four warders, therefore, stood by the gate Shalleketh. Adding together the numbers given in 1 Chronicles 26:17, we find that there were twenty-four warders on duty every day. The recurrence of the number is curious; but its relation to the twenty-four classes of the porters can hardly be determined. It is likely, however, that the twenty-four warders represent chiefs with their companies rather than individuals (comp. 1 Chronicles 26:12). Twenty-four would be an insignificant fraction of 4,000 (1 Chronicles 23:6).