NETHINIM neth’ ə nim (נְתִינִֽים, those given). In RSV tr. TEMPLE SERVANTS. They are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 9:2 (cf. Neh 11:3); Ezra 2:43, 58, 70; 7:7, 24; 8:17, 20; Nehemiah 3:26, 31; 7:46, 60, 73; 10:28; 11:3, 21.

The LXX usually transliterates the word; at 1 Chronicles 9:2 it is tr. οἱ δεδομένοι. Josephus (Antiq. XI, 5, 1) calls them ἱερόδουμοι, “temple slaves.”

Ezra 8:20 gives the most specific clue to the origin of the Nethinim. That David should have given them to assist the Levites is in keeping with the general account of David’s organization of the Levitical services (1 Chron 23 and 24) in preparation for the Temple. Nethinim means “those who are given.” Just as the Levites as a whole were “wholly given” to the Lord from among the people of Israel (Num 8:16), so the Levites were given as a gift to Aaron and his sons (8:19). The word tr. “gift” is the passive participle of the verb and means “ones given,” close in form and meaning to Nethinim. David appears to have followed this pattern in assigning another group to assist the Levites. 1 Chronicles 9:2 gives the order: “Israel, the priests, the Levites, and Nethinim.” Nehemiah 11:3 gives the same order: “Israel, the priests, the Levites, the Nethinim, and the descendants of Solomon’s servants.” The singling out of an hereditary group, the descendants of Solomon’s servants, makes a natural parallel to the group originating with David.

Presumably the Nethinim were not Levites. Oehler (Old Testament Theology, p. 376) supposes, following Aben Ezra, that the Gibeonites were the original Nethinim (Josh 9:27).

After the depletion of the Gibeonites by Saul (2 Sam 21:1), there were given by David additional Nethinim for special service. Perhaps they were slaves acquired in war.

The fact that the Nethinim are not mentioned in the so-called P document is weighty evidence against the theory of the origin of that document in postexilic times. How could P fail to mention the Nethinim? “It is impossible to explain how a professional priestly group, manufacturing a spurious law of Moses for the purpose of justifying and enforcing their claims to special authority, could have failed to include Mosaic sanctions for any of these items. Nor, for that matter, is it explicable how J and E and D could have failed to mention items (1), (3) [the Nethinim], and (4), if they were in fact composed later than the reign of Solomon (970-931 b.c.), under whom the temple singers, Nethinim and musical instruments, were intimately involved in the temple cultus. It is therefore difficult to account for this astonishing silence about matters of peculiarly priestly interest, except upon the basis that P was in fact composed before Solomon’s time” (Archer, A Survey of O. T. Introduction, pp. 152, 153).

The Nethinim are mentioned almost entirely in Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra 2:43ff. lists the heads of families of the Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel: Nethinim and the sons of Solomon’s servants totalled 392. The Nethinim lived in their own towns (v. 70). Under Ezra a contingent of Nethinim returned (Ezra 7:7), and were exempt from tax (v. 24). Ezra 8 gives the account of the muster in preparation for the return. Two hundred and twenty Nethinim were included (v. 20).

The Nethinim are mentioned in Nehemiah’s organization for rebuilding the wall. Nethinim lived on Ophel and repaired a portion of the wall (Neh 3:26). The repair work of Malchijah reached to the house of the Nethinim (v. 31). Batten (ICC, Ezra-Nehemiah, pp. 87ff.) thinks that v. 31 must be earlier than the writing of Chronicles and therefore attests the existence of the Nethinim before that time. They cannot be dismissed as part of an unhistorical reconstruction of the Chronicler.

Nethinim (Neh 10:28) are included among those who entered into covenant to devote themselves to God. They are mentioned also in Nehemiah’s account of his attempt to populate Jerusalem with pure Jews in accordance with the list of those who returned from Babylon (Neh 11:3, 21).

Bibliography G. F. Oehler, Theology of the Old Testament (1884); J. Taylor, “Nethinim” HDB III (1900), 519, 520; L. W. Batten, ICC, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (1913), 87ff.; I, Benzinger, ‘Nethinim,” IB (1914), cols. 3397-3400; T. K. Cheyne, “Solomon’s Servants, Children of,” IB (1914), col. 4690; C. Van Orelli, “Levites,” The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, VI, 466-468; J. S. Wright, “Nethinim,” The New Bible Dictionary (1962), 878, 879; G. L. Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (1964).