The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

SECT. I. Of the Porters and Guards of the Temple.

THE a 1.1 Levites were divided into Porters and Signers; b 1.2 fixed Offices which they might not change, one to intrude into anothers Office, and neither of them into the Priests.

The distribution of Porters into four and twenty Courses, is not so clearly legible in the Scripture, as is such a distribution of the Priests and Singers; for the Courses of both those are both numbred and named, and so are not these. And yet do these two Texts, 2 Chron. 3. 14. and 1 Chron. 26. 17, 18. hold out so fair a propability of such a thing, that it may almost as readily be concluded upon, as may the other. For in the former, the Por∣ters go in the very same Equipage, as to the matter of division into Courses, with the Priests and Singers. He appointed the Courses of the Priests according to the order of David his Father, and the Levites to their charges, to praise and minister before the Lord, as the duty of every day required; the Porters also by their Courses at every Gate. And in the lat∣ter, the first Fathers of the Porters are summed up to the very same number that the first Fathers of the other Courses were, namely, to four and twenty: Amongst all the Por∣ters c 1.3 [saith David Kimchi] there were four and twenty according to the rest of the cour∣ses; six on the East side, four on the North, four on the South: at Asuppim two and two, four in all; four on the West, and two at Parhar; behold four and twenty. And our Rab∣bins have distributed them into four and twenty places, &c.

The Office of the Porters was first to open and shut the Doors of the Mountain of the House, and of the Court of the Women; (for we have observed elsewhere, that the Priests took care for opening and shutting the Gates of the other Court) and to attend in those Gates all the day for prevention of any inconvenience that might come: to the preju∣dice of the purity, safety, or peace of the place or service. Secondly, the Scripture puts some Treasureship upon the Porters, as that they had some Treasures and Treasu∣ries at the Gates where they attended; of which is spoken at large in our Treating con∣cerning the Gates and Treasuries elsewhere. As for that part of their office and imploy∣ment which the Rabbins do sometimes make mention of, (under the phrase of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) whether it were the brushing of the Gates, and keeping of the guilding bright, or their being the Turn-keys at the Wickets, or little doors within the great Gates when the Gates were shut; it was a work so coincident with their attendance at the Gates continually, that it is but a piece of that imployment, and needs not to be taken for an Office by it self.

Now besides this care of the Porters at the Gates by day, there was as much or more both at the Gates and other places by night in the Guards which were set to watch the Temple, which were four and twenty in all. d 1.4 The guards of the Sanctuary (saith Maimony) was an affirmative command; although there were not fear either of enemies or thieves: and the command concerning this guarding, was that it should be by night. And they that warded were the Priests and the Levites, as it is said, thou and thy sons with thee, be∣fore the Tabernacle of the Congregation, &c. Now whether the Levites that were of these Guards were the Porters only, and not the Singers also of every Course as it came in,

might very well be questioned, if it were worth the labour to examine it; (e) but were they, or were they not, the guards were in number four and twenty, and were kept in four and twenty places every night, three of Priests, and one and twenty of Levites. 1. There was a guard at every one of these Gates of the Mountain of the House, one at the East Gate Shusha; one at the North Gate Tedi; two at the two South Gates Huldab; and one at the West Gate Coponius: And there was a Guard within every one of the four corners of that great Square: so that there were nine in that boundary Wall that encompassed the Holy Ground. The three other Gates on the West quarter, name∣ly, one of Parbar, and two of Asuppim, had not Night-guards at them as the rest had, though they had Porters by day, either because the steep descent from them did help their security, or because they found some security for them some other way. 2. About the Wall that enclosed the Courts, there were two Guards at the two East corners, and at the West, and both of them without the Wall of the Court; and there were five at five of the seven Gates. The two Gates that had not the Levites Guards upon them, were the Water-Gate, over which there was a Guard of Priests in the Chamber of A••tines and the upper Gate of Corban, by which there was a Guard of Priests in the room Beth Mokadh. And there was one Guard more of Levites on the North side, in the Cham∣ber of Corban, over against the Holy Place, and another on the South side over against the Vail, and another just behind the most Holy Place. The Gate Nitsets had a Guard of Priests and Levites both at it, very near together; All which places will be easier un∣derstood upon sight of them in the Map that we have drawn of the Temple, and build∣ing about it, if it could once find the hap to come to sight.

f 1.5 There was one that walked the Round through all these Guards every night, and him they called, The Man of the Mountain of the House: And if he found any one not standing on his feet, he said unto him, Peace be unto thee; but if he found any one asleep, he struck him, and had liberty to set fire on his Garments: so that they would say, what noise is yonder in the Court? why it is the noise of a Levite beaten, and his Coat burnt because he slept upon the Guard. Rabbi Eliezer the son of Jacob saith, one time they found my Mothers Brother sleeping, and they burnt his Garments. Now whether this Man of the Mountain of the House were the Sagan [as some have thought, but very unlikely,] or one man of the Course that then waited, appointed for this purpose; as is the Opinion of g 1.6 Maimony and h 1.7 Bartenora, or whosoever he was, methinks his action in burning the sleepers Garments, giveth light to that place, Rev. 16. 15. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments.

Notes

• a 1.1

  1 Chron. 25. & 26.
• b 1.2

  Erachin. per. ••. in Gemar.
• c 1.3

  Kimchi in 1 Chron. 26.
• d 1.4

  Maym. in Beth. ••abbech. per. 8.
• f 1.5

  Id ibid.
• g 1.6

  Maym. ubi ante.
• h 1.7

  Bartenor. in Middoth.