THE NETHINIMS

(neth-ee-neem×), a class of Temple servitors known from the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. The term is derived from the Hebrew root ntn in the sense of ‘to give someone over into Temple service.’ Later traditions identified the Nethinim with the Gibeonites who tricked Joshua into sparing them (cf. Josh. 9). When their ruse was discovered it was decreed (Josh. 9:27) that they serve as hewers of wood and drawers of water for the community and the altar. Ezra 8:20 mentions the Nethinim ‘whom David and his officials had set apart to attend the Levites.’ Either the service of the Nethinim was organized in David’s time, or he provided captives or other foreigners who joined this class. Jewish tradition mentions that 538 Nethinim returned from the Babylonian Exile. Scholars are divided as to whether the Nethinim were actually slaves, property of the Temple, or simply servitors like the Levites (cf. 1 Chron. 9:1-2). The mention of ‘the Kerosite’ in the Arad ostraca may indicate the presence of Nethinim in the pre-exilic period (cf. Ezra 2:44; Neh. 7:47). At Ugarit there was a class of cultic servitors called ytnm, one of whom has a name that appears in the list in Ezra 2:45-46. It is therefore possible that the Nethinim were an international guild skilled in cultic arts who attached themselves to Israel in an early period. Similar also to the Nethinim in function are the shirku, known from Neo-Babylonian documents. According to the Mishnah (Qidd. 4:1), Nethinim could marry priests, Levites, or Israelites. Most likely, the Nethinim had been assimilated into Israel by Second Temple times (ca. 530 b.c.-a.d. 70) and they were no longer recognizable as a distinct class.

NETHINIM (Heb. n^et_éئnéئm, rsv ‘temple servants’). Apart from 1 Ch. 9:2 (parallel to Ne. 11:3) these people are mentioned only in Ezra and Nehemiah (av). They are listed among the returned exiles in Ezr. 2:43-58, where they are grouped with ‘the sons of Solomon’s servants’. When Ezra brings back a fresh party he sends to a place named Casiphia to obtain Levites and Nethinim (Ezr. 8:17, 20). In Jerusalem they had special quarters in the Ophel district near the Temple (Ne. 3:26, 31; 11:21). This may have been where they lived when they were on duty, since Ezr. 2:70; Ne. 7:73 refer to cities in which they lived; it is possible, however, that the reference here is to the period before the rebuilding of the Temple.

The name means ‘those who are given’, and Ezr. 8:20 says that David and the princes had given them for the service of the Levites. It has been held that they and the children of Solomons servants were the descendants of Canaanite or foreign prisoners, like the Gibeonites of Jos. 9:27. The foreign names in Ezr. 2:43-58 would support this. In 1 Esdras 5:29 and Josephus (Ant. 11. 128) they are called ‘temple slaves’, hierodouloi. It has been supposed that Ezekiel protests against them in 44:6-8, but it is hardly likely that the Nethinim would have remained uncircumcised as Ezekiel here says, and their inclusion in the Ezra list, and the position given to them in Ezra-Nehemiah show that the rigoristic Chronicler had no objection to them. Similarly, the reference to the Canaanite in the house of the Lord in Zc. 14:21 is more likely to refer to Canaanite traders, as in Pr. 31:24.

The Word has always the definite article, and does not occur in the singular.

The meaning " given " is suggestive of a state of servitude, and Joshua seem to confirm the suggestion by calling the Nethinims " Temple slaves " .

[ Nathiyn, naw-theen ; or Nathuwn (Ezra 8 : 17), naw-thoon (the prop. form, as pass. part.), from 5414; one given, i.e. (in the plur. only) the Neth- inim, or Temple-servants (as given up to that duty): -Nethinims. ] { Strong H-5411 }.

1CH. 9: 2 " Now the first inhabitants that <dwelt>in their possessions in their cities <were>, the Israelites, the priests, Levites, and the Nethinims.

EZR. 2: 43 " The Nethinims: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth. " = NE. 7:46.

EZR. 2:58 " All the Nethinims, and the children of Solomon's servants, <were> three hundred ninety and two."

EZR. 2: 70 " So the priests, and the Levites, and <some> of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities. "

EZR. 7: 7 " And there went up <some> of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters,

and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king."

EZR. 7:24 " Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll tribute, or custom, upon them."

EZR. 3: 4 " Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building. "

EZR. 3: 7 " And in the days of Artaxerxes wrote Bishlam, Mithredath,Tabeel, and the rest of their companions, unto Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the writing of the letter <was> written in the Syrian tongue, and interpreted in he Syrian tongue.

NE.3:26 Moreover the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel, unto <the place> over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lieth out."

NE.3: 31 After him repaired Malchiah the goldsmith's son unto the place of the Nethinims, and of the merchants, over against the gate Miphkad, and to the going up of the corner. "

NE. 7:46 " The Nethinims: the children of Ziha, the children of Hashupha, the children of Tabbaoth. " = EZR. 2:43.

NE. 7: 60 " All the Nethinims, and the children of Solomon's servants, <were> three hundred ninety and two. "

NE. 7:73 " So the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and <some> of the people and the Nethinims, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities; and when the seventh month came, the children of Israel <were> in their cities."

NE.10: 28 " And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, the wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding."

NE.11:3 " Now these <are> the chief of the province that dwelt in Jerusalem: but in the cities of Judah dwelt every one in his possession in their cities, <to wit>, Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the Netinims, and the children of Solomon's servants."

NE.11:21 " But the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel: and Ziha and Gispa <were> over the Nethinims."

Of the history of the Nethinims in earlier times, there are but few and uncertain traces. When Joshua discovered that he had been beguiled by the Gibionites into a covenant to let them live, he reduced their tribe to servitude, and declared : Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall never fail to be of you bond-men, both hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. ( Josh. 9:23-27 ). It is no doubt tempting to see in the Gibionites the earliest Nethinims.

Another tradition traces their origin to a gift of David and the princes for the service of the Levites. ( Ezr. 8:20 ).

Their names, too, indicate diversity of origin; for besides being mostly un-Hebrew in aspect, some of them are found elsewhere in the Old Testament as names of non-Israelitish tribes. The Meunim, for example in ( Ezr. 2:50 & Neh. 7:52 ) are descended from the Meonites or Maonites who are mentioned as harassing Israel

( Jgs. 10:12 ), as in conflict with the Semionites in ( I Ch. 4:41 ), and as finally overcome by Uzziah ( II Ch. 26:7 ). The next name in the lists is that of the children of Nephisim. These may be traced to the Hagrite clan of Naphish mentioned in ( Gen. 25:15 & I Ch. 5:19 ).

In both Ezra and Nehamiah, the list is immediately followed by that of the servants of Solomon employed in the building of his temple ( I Kgs. 5:15 ). All these indications warrant the assumption that the Nethinims were originally foreign slaves, mostly prisoners of war, who had from time to time been given to the temple by the kings and princes of the nation, and that to them were assigned the lower menial duties of the house of God.

However, at the time of the return from the exile the Nethinims had come to be regarded as important. Their number was considerable: 392 accompanied Zerubabel at the first Return in 538 BC ( Ezr. 5:28 & Neh. 7:60 ). When Ezra, some 80 years later, organized the second Return, he secured a contingent numbering 220 (Ezr. 8:20). In Jerus they enjoyed the same privileges and immunities as the other religious orders, being included by King Artaxerxes' letter to Ezra among those who should be exempt from toll, custom, and tribute ( Ezr. 7:24 ). A part of the city in Ophel, opposite to Water-gate was assigned them as an official residence ( Neh.3:26-31 ), and the situation is certainly appropriate if their duties at all resembled those of the Gebionites. They were also organized into a kind of guild under their own leaders or presidents. ( Neh. 11 :21).

The Nethinims name, at a later time, became a butt for the scorn and bitterness of the Talmudic writers against everything that they regarded as un-Jewish.

Class of Temple servitors known from the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. The term is derived from the Hebrew root ntn in the sense of >to give someone over into Temple service.= Later traditions identified the Nethinim with the Gibeonites who tricked Joshua into sparing them (cf. Josh. 9). When their ruse was discovered it was decreed (Josh. 9:27) that they serve as hewers of wood and drawers of water for the community and the altar. Ezra 8:20 mentions the Nethinim >whom David and his officials had set apart to attend the Levites.= Either the service of the Nethinim was organized in David=s time, or he provided captives or other foreigners who joined this class. Jewish tradition mentions that 538 Nethinim returned from the Babylonian Exile. Scholars are divided as to whether the Nethinim were actually slaves, property of the Temple, or simply servitors like the Levites (cf. 1 Chron. 9:1-2). The mention of >the Kerosite= in the Arad ostraca may indicate the presence of Nethinim in the pre-exilic period (cf. Ezra 2:44; Neh. 7:47). At Ugarit there was a class of cultic servitors called ytnm, one of whom has a name that appears in the list in Ezra 2:45-46. It is therefore possible that the Nethinim were an international guild skilled in cultic arts who attached themselves to Israel in an early period. Similar also to the Nethinim in function are the shirku, known from Neo-Babylonian documents. According to the Mishnah (Qidd. 4:1), Nethinim could marry priests, Levites, or Israelites. Most likely, the Nethinim had been assimilated into Israel by Second Temple times (ca. 530 b.c.-a.d. 70) and they were no longer recognizable as a distinct class.

When God’s people are in captivity, the nethinims move to occupy the position of leadership in the church !!!