19 In addition the door-keepers, Akkub, Talmon, and their brothers who kept watch at the doors, were a hundred and seventy-two.
And the door-keepers: Shallum and Akkub and Talmon and Ahiman and their brothers: Shallum was the chief. Up till then they had been at the king's door to the east. They were door-keepers for the tents of the sons of Levi. And Shallum, the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brothers, of his family, the Korahites, were responsible for everything which had to be done in connection with the order of worship, keepers of the doors of the Tent; their fathers had had the care of the tents of the Lord, being keepers of the doorway. In the past Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, had been ruler over them; may the Lord be with him! Zechariah, the son of Meshelemiah, was keeper of the door of the Tent of meeting. There were two hundred and twelve whose business it was to keep the doorway. These were listed by families in the country places where they were living, whom David and Samuel the seer put in their responsible positions.
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Commentary on Nehemiah 11 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 11
Jerusalem was walled round, but it was not as yet fully inhabited, and therefore was weak and despicable. Nehemiah's next care is to bring people into it; of that we have here an account.
Neh 11:1-19
Jerusalem is called here the holy city (v. 1), because there the temple was, and that was the place God had chosen to put his name there; upon this account, one would think, the holy seed should all have chosen to dwell there and have striven for a habitation there; but, on the contrary, it seems they declined dwelling there,
Neh 11:20-36
Having given an account of the principal persons that dwelt in Jerusalem (a larger account of whom he had before, 1 Chr. 9:2, etc.), Nehemiah, in these verses, gives us some account of the other cities, in which dwelt the residue of Israel, v. 20. It was requisite that Jerusalem should be replenished, yet not so as to drain the country. The king himself is served of the field, which will do little service if there be not hands to manage it. Let there therefore be no strife, no envy, no contempt, no ill will, between the inhabitants of the cities and those of the villages; both are needful, both useful, and neither can be spared.