StrongerBible

sho'er

שֹׁעֵר

HebrewH7778gatekeeper, doorkeeper, ...

Appears 37 times · tap a cell to see the verses

2Sa 18:262Ki 7:102Ki 7:111Ch 9:171Ch 9:181Ch 9:211Ch 9:221Ch 9:241Ch 9:261Ch 15:181Ch 15:231Ch 15:241Ch 16:381Ch 23:51Ch 26:11Ch 26:121Ch 26:192Ch 8:142Ch 23:42Ch 23:192Ch 31:142Ch 34:132Ch 35:15Ezr 2:42Ezr 2:70Ezr 7:7Ezr 10:24Neh 7:1Neh 7:73(72)Neh 10:28(29)Neh 10:39(40)Neh 11:19Neh 12:25
Root family
Word studysho-AYRnoun

What sho'er means

a gatekeeper: a person stationed at a gate or door to guard it and control who comes and goes

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

A gatekeeper is someone posted at an entrance to watch it, keep it secure, and decide who may pass. The word comes straight from the ordinary Hebrew word for a gate, so it names the person by the place he tends: the man of the gate.

Most of the time the word points to a specific kind of gatekeeper, the temple gatekeepers of Israel. These were an organized body of Levites, listed by name and family and assigned by lot to the entrances of the sanctuary. Their duty went beyond simply opening and shutting doors: they guarded the thresholds, kept watch through the night, controlled access so that nothing unclean entered, and took charge of storerooms, offerings, and the temple treasury. Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah treat this as a settled office alongside the priests, the singers, and the other temple servants.

A handful of times the word simply means an ordinary gatekeeper at a city or town gate, the man who watches the entrance and passes word to the people inside. The two uses are the same job, one attached to the house of God and one to a walled town.

Nuances

1aa temple gatekeeper: a Levite appointed to guard the gates, thresholds, and storerooms of the sanctuary
1Ch 9:171Ch 9:181Ch 9:211Ch 9:221Ch 9:241Ch 9:261Ch 15:181Ch 15:231Ch 15:241Ch 16:381Ch 23:51Ch 26:1
1ban ordinary gatekeeper at a city or town gate, who watches the entrance and reports to those inside
2Sa 18:262Ki 7:102Ki 7:11

What scholars say about sho'er

The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) treat the word as the agent noun of the root meaning gate, so it denotes the gatekeeper or doorkeeper, the one who tends an entrance. It occurs almost entirely in Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, where it is a technical term for the Levitical gatekeepers, an organized temple office documented in detail in 1 Chronicles 9 and 26: keepers assigned by family and lot to the four sides of the temple, responsible for guarding the thresholds and the storehouses and controlling access to the sacred precinct. A minority of occurrences (2 Samuel 18:26; 2 Kings 7:10-11) use it for an ordinary gatekeeper at a city gate. There is no dispute about the meaning of the word itself.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. שֹׁעֵרlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. שֹׁעֵרlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. שֹׁעֵרlexicon
  • TWOT, entry on the root שׁער (gate)theological-dictionary

All attested forms of שֹׁעֵר

m p absolute

שֹּׁעֲרִים, שֹׁעֲרִים, וְהַשּׁוֹעֲרִים, הַשּׁוֹעֲרִים, וְשׁוֹעֲרִים, שׁוֹעֲרִים

2Ki 7:11, 1Ch 9:17, 1Ch 9:18, 1Ch 9:24, 1Ch 9:26, 1Ch 15:18, 1Ch 26:12, 1Ch 26:19

m s absolute

הַשּׁוֹעֵר, שֹּׁעֵר

2Ch 31:14, 2Sa 18:26

m s construct

שֹׁעֵר

2Ki 7:10, 1Ch 9:21

m p construct

שֹׁעֲרֵי

2Ch 23:4