port, por'-ter: "Port" in the sense of "gate" (of a city or building) is obsolete in modern English, and even in the King James Version is found only in Ne 2:13. "Porter," as "gate-keeper," however, is still in some use, but "porter" now (but never in the English Versions of the Bible) generally means a burden-carrier. In the Old Testament, except in 2Sa 18:26; 2Ki 7:10-11, the porter (sho`er) is a sacred officer of the temple or tabernacle, belonging to a particular family of the Levites, with a share in the sacred dues (Ne 13:5; 12:47). The "porters" are mentioned only in Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, and Chronicles has a special interest in them, relating that their duties were settled as far back as the time of David (1Ch 26:1-19), and that the office extended further to the first settlement of Palestine and even to Moses' day (1Ch 9:17-26). The office was evidently one of some dignity, and the "chief-porters" (1Ch 9:26) were important persons. For some inscrutable reason the Revised Version (British and American) renders sho`er by "doorkeeper" in 1Ch 15:1-29 through 1Ch 26:1-32, but not elsewhere.
Burton Scott Easton