Ater

Ater is a name found in the lists of those who returned from exile. In Ezra, “the children of Ater of Hezekiah” number ninety and eight, and a second family called Ater appears among the porters, or gatekeepers of the temple. Nehemiah names an Ater again among those who sealed the covenant. Scripture gives no story for any of them. Their value is simply that they were counted and remembered, family by family, when God’s people came back to Jerusalem and began rebuilding. Anyone who wants to see the lists in full can start at Ezra 2, which gives each family’s name and its number.

3 verses

Ezra

Ezra 2:16

The children of Ater of Hezekiah, ninety and eight.

Ezra 2:42

The children of the porters: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, in all an hundred thirty and nine.

Nehemiah

Nehemiah 10:17

Ater, Hizkijah, Azzur,

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Shut; lame. (1.) Ezra 2:16. (2.) Neh. 10:17. (3.) Ezra 2:42.

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(shut up).

(1.) The children of Ater were among the porters or gate-keepers of the temple who returned with Zerubbabel. (Ezra 2:42; Nehemiah 7:45)

(2.) The children of ATER OF HEZEKIAH to the number of 98 returned with Zerubbabel, (Ezra 2:16; Nehemiah 7:21) and were among the heads of the people who signed the covenant with Nehemiah. (Nehemiah 10:17)