Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Chronicles 9:17

"And the porters: Shallum, and Akkub, and Talmon, and Ahiman, and their brethren (Shallum was the chief)," — 1 Chronicles 9:17 (ASV)

And the porters were, Shallum, and Akkub, and Talmon, and Ahiman. —Compare Nehemiah 11:18-19, which summarizes as follows: “All the Levites in the holy city were two hundred fourscore and four. Moreover the porters, Akkub, Talmon, and their brethren that kept the gates, were an hundred seventy and two.” Shallum does not appear.

Ahiman may have originated out of the following:

Their brethren. —Hebrew, aheihem. Compare also Nehemiah 12:25-26, where we are told that (Mattaniah and Bakbukiah, Obadiah and) Meshullam (i.e., Shallum), Talmon, and Akkub were porters keeping watch at the storehouses of the Temple gates, in the times of Joiakim son of Jeshua son of Jozadak, and of Nehemiah and Ezra. It is clear that the names of the porters likewise represent families or guilds, which had hereditary charge of the Temple gates.

In fact, all the Levitical functions appear to have descended in the same families from father to son, much like the various civil offices in the Roman Empire. Tradition ascribed this entire arrangement to David, the second founder of the national worship. At this point, the correspondence with Nehemiah 11:0 ceases.

Shallum was the chief. —This really belongs to 1 Chronicles 9:18 and introduces a description of the duties of the Levites, which extends over 1 Chronicles 9:18–34. Translate this as: Shallum is the chief still to this day in the king’s gate, on the east side. Shallum (“recompense”) is called “Shelemiah” (1 Chronicles 26:14), which, again, is a shortening of Meshelemiah (“Jah repays”), 1 Chronicles 26:1; 1 Chronicles 9:21 (see below).

The fact that Shallum—Meshelemiah—is spoken of as a gatekeeper in David’s day as well as in the post-exilic age proves that a guild or clan, not an individual, is in question. The eastern gate was the post of honour (Ezekiel 46:1–2) and the royal entry. The old name of the King’s Gate would naturally be retained in the restored Temple.