1 Chronicles 23:5

Porters (Hebrew שֹׁעְרִים ); doorkeepers. The word is so translated in 1 Chronicles 15:23 , 1 Chronicles 15:24 . It was the duty of these to keep the entrances of the sanctuary, by day and night, in their courses (see also 2 Kings 7:10 , 2 Kings 7:11 ). The Chaldaic equivalent of this word is תָּרָע ( Ezra 7:24 ; Daniel 2:49 ). There is no connection between either the word or idea we have here, and those of Psalms 84:11 , where the Hithp. conjugation of סָפף is used, and the sense of residence probably intended to be conveyed. The instruments which I made… to praise . Possibly the quotation of a short sentence often on David's lips. Men given to music may have been very conscious of it, in ancient days, as well as in modern. The language, however, does not necessarily assert that David claimed the inventing or in any similar sense the making of these musical instruments, but that he appointed them for the service of praise. What some of them were may be seen in 2 Chronicles 5:12 —"cymbals, psalteries, harps, trumpets" (see also 2 Chronicles 29:25-27 ; Nehemiah 12:35 , Nehemiah 12:36 ; Amos 6:5 ).