Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Chronicles 26:16

"To Shuppim and Hosah westward, by the gate of Shallecheth, at the causeway that goeth up, watch against watch." — 1 Chronicles 26:16 (ASV)

To Shuppim and Hosah. —No such name as Shuppim (1 Chronicles 7:12) occurs among those of the Levitical gatekeepers as given above in 1 Chronicles 26:1–11. It is almost certainly a mistaken repetition of the last two syllables of Asuppim, which immediately precedes it. (The mistake is as old as the Vulgate; the Septuagint has εἰς δεύτερον, perhaps reading lishnàyîm instead of le Shuppîm.) Read: And to Hosah (the lot fell) to the west, with the gate Shallèketh on the highway that goeth up.

The gate Shalleketh, mentioned here only. The name means casting down (in Isaiah 6:13, it denotes felling a tree); and therefore this gate has been identified with the “Rubbish” or “Refuse Gate.” (Compare Nehemiah 3:13.) It seems an objection to this that the gate faced the highway that goeth up from the lower city to the Temple. Perhaps the name alludes to the drop, or steep descent, from the Sanctuary to the city.

Ward against ward. —Hebrew, mishmâr lĕ‘ummath mishmâr. Compare the use of the same preposition in 1 Chronicles 26:12, 1 Chronicles 25:8, and 1 Chronicles 24:31. Here the meaning seems to be that Hosah had to guard two posts, namely, the western gate of the Temple and the gate Shalleketh, which lay opposite in the western wall of the Temple area. (The Septuagint has φυλακὴ κατέναντι φυλακῆς; the Vulgate custodia contra custodiam; implying that Hosah’s guards were stationed opposite to each other.) But perhaps these concluding words refer to all four stations and should be rendered, ward like ward, or ward and ward alike, or post over against post.