The bottom part of a door frame, over which one steps when entering a building or a city. Guards were posted at the threshold of the Temple (Ezek 46:2); these were priests (2Kgs 12:10) or Levites (2Chr 34:9), and one of their duties was to receive donations from people entering the Temple (2Kgs 22:4). Zephaniah condemns those who jump over the threshold of the Temple (Zeph 1:9), possibly because it was an idolatrous practice. The priests of Dagon in Ashdod would not tread on the threshold to Dagon’s temple, since the image of Dagon had fallen on it when the captured Ark of the Lord had been placed in the temple (1Sam 5:4-5).
