NETHINIM, the name given to the members of a class of assistants in the service of the temple of Jerusalem. In the Old Testament they are specially mentioned, and thus designated, only by the compiler of Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah (3rd century B.C.). The name means "given" or "dedicated," i.e., to the temple; cf. Num. iii. 9, viii. 19, where the same term is applied to the Levites. In 1 Esdras and Josephus they are called lepOSovXot, as are also the Levites in I Esdras i. 3. In the census lists compiled by the Chron icler, where a complete classification is desired, we find the order : Levites, singers, porters, Nethinim, e.g., in Ezra ii. Of these classes, the first three are of equal rank; the singers and porters are Levites (1 Chr. ix. 2, Neh. xi. 3, 15-18, xiii. 22, etc.), though sometimes expressly distinguished from them, when the special duties of the several orders are thought of (2 Chr. xxxv. 15, Ezra ii. 7o, etc.). In the time of the Chronicler the Nethinim were free men and members of the Israelite community. They were
registered by families and were exempt from taxation. Like the priests and Levites they served in rotation, being assigned to a cer tain portion of Jerusalem (Ophel), and also to neighbouring Leviti cal cities or villages. In Neh. x. 29 seq. they join in the solemn covenant, promising among other things not to intermarry with "the peoples of the land." It is generally supposed, and not without good reason, that the Nethinim had their origin in a class of foreign menials (slaves) employed in the temple. In the time of the Chronicler it was customary to describe the Nethinim as "those given by David for the Levitical service" (Ezra viii. 2o), and similar to this is the designation of one portion of them as the "children of Solomon's servants" (Ezra ii. 55, Neh. vii. 57, xi. 3). (C. C. T.)