Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Chronicles 26:18

"For Parbar westward, four at the causeway, and two at Parbar." — 1 Chronicles 26:18 (ASV)

At the Parbar westward. See 2 Kings 23:11, where the plural Parwârîm occurs. The meaning of the word is unknown. According to Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 1123), “Parwâr” is the correct spelling; and the term corresponds to a Persian word denoting “summer-house,” that is, a building open to light and air. He describes “the Parbar” as a cloister running around the court of the Temple, from which the cells were entered (see the 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, an 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 26:17–18, we find that there were twenty-four warders on duty every day. The recurrence of this number is curious, but its relation to the twenty-four classes of the porters can hardly be determined. It is likely, however, that these twenty-four warders represent chiefs with their companies rather than individuals (compare 1 Chronicles 26:12). Twenty-four would be an insignificant fraction of the 4,000 porters (1 Chronicles 23:6).