Talmon

Talmon is a Levite gatekeeper named in the post-exilic temple rosters of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The name appears in lists rather than narrative episodes, and the lists are consistent: Talmon stands among the porters who guard the temple gates, and a family bearing his name returns from Babylon with the first wave of restoration.

A porter of the temple

Chronicles places Talmon in a roster of gatekeepers serving alongside Shallum, Akkub, and Ahiman, with Shallum named as their chief: "And the porters: Shallum, and Akkub, and Talmon, and Ahiman, and their brothers (Shallum was the chief)," 1Ch 9:17. The role is one of watch and access — the porters are the temple's gate-keepers, and Talmon is listed among the men who hold that office.

Family returned from captivity

The Talmon name reappears as a clan among those who came back from exile. Ezra's roster of returnees groups the porters by ancestry: "The sons of the porters: the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, the sons of Shobai, in all a hundred thirty and nine," Ezr 2:42. Nehemiah's parallel list gives the same six houses with a slightly different total: "The porters: the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, the sons of Shobai, a hundred thirty and eight," Neh 7:45. The continuity of the same six names across both rosters places the Talmon family within a fixed circle of gatekeeping clans that survived the captivity as an identifiable group.

Watch at the gates after the return

Once resettled in Jerusalem, men named Talmon and Akkub continue in active gate duty. Nehemiah's account of the city's repopulation singles them out by office: "Moreover the porters, Akkub, Talmon, and their brothers, that kept watch at the gates, were a hundred seventy and two," Neh 11:19. A later notice extends the work to the temple storehouses: "Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were porters keeping the watch at the storehouses of the gates," Neh 12:25. The same two names — Talmon and Akkub — anchor both notices, and the duty in each is the same: keeping watch at the gates.