NETHINIM (neth'i-nfm), (Heb. 1T;, naw them', one given).
(1) Servants of the Temple. This name, which means 'the given,' or 'the devoted,' was ap plied to the servants of the temple, or temple slaves, who were under the Levites in the minis try of the tabernacle and temple.
(2) Origin and Duties. The first servants whom thc Levites obtained were the Gibeonites, on whom devolved the very laborious services of fetching water and collecting wood (Josh. ix: 3-27). The number of such servants appears to have been increased by David; and it seems to have been then, when these seryants ceased to be wholly Gibconites, that Nethinim came into use as a proper name for the whole class (Ezra viii : 2o). From that time forward they appear to have been no longer regarded or treated as slaves, but as the lowest order of the servants of the sanctuary ; who, although in their origin foreign ers and heathen, had doubtless embraced the Jew ish religion. These did not all forget their rela tionship to the sanctuary during the Captivity.
Some of them returned to their duties under the decree of Cyrus. and were placed in cities with the Levites (Neh. xi:3; Ezra ii :7o; Chron. ix :2).
(3) Number and Position. It was not to be expected that many of them would return to this humble station in Palestine, but 220 accompanied Ezra (Ezra viii:2o), and 3g2 Zerubbabel (ii: 5, 8). The voluntary devotedness which was thus manifested by these persons considerably raised the station of the Ncthinim, which was thence forth regarded rather as honorable than degrad ing. Their number was, however, insufficient for the service of the temple; whence, as Josephus tells us (De Bell. Jud. 17, 6), a festival, called '4uX000pla, Xylophoria, was established, in which the people, to supply the deficiency, were obliged to bring a certain quantity of wood to the temple for the use of the altar of blunt-offering.