To Shuppim and Hosah the lot came forth westward,.... Of Shuppim no mention is before made; of Hosah, see 1 Chronicles 26:10 their lot was to be placed at the gates on the western wall, where were four; the two more southward being assigned to the sons of Obededom, whose lot also was southward, are taken notice of under the division in the preceding verse; Parbar was another, 1 Chronicles 26:18, and another follows here:
with the gate Shallecheth, by the causeway of the going up; this gate was in later times called Coponius, from the name of a Roman commander, in the times of Herod, who might give it this name on his account; it might have the name of Shallecheth either from "sending out", or carrying out the filth of the temple through it; or rather from "casting up the causeway", as here expressed, which was the going up, or ascent, Solomon made, by which he went up to the temple, 1 Kings 20:5 and which agrees with the description Josephus a gives of one of the gates on the western wall, that it led to the royal palace, the valley between being filled up for the passage; on each side of which causeway, it is said, grew oaks and teil trees, see Isaiah 6:13 which served both to keep up the causeway, and to make a fine, pleasant, shady walk for the king to pass through to the temple; all which are observed by Dr. Lightfoot b:
ward against ward; for as the gates answered one another, so the wards or watches at them.
a Antiqu. l. 15. c. 11. sect. 5. b Ut supra, (Prospect of the Temple), c. 5. sect. 1.