Hebrew word · H5411

נְתִינִים

netinim

temple servant

A passive form of the verb natan, 'to give': 'the given ones,' meaning people dedicated or donated to the sanctuary for its service. In the Bible the word occurs only in Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, always for a class of temple servants listed below the priests, Levites, singers and gatekeepers.

Appears 17 times in 15 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) Nethinims

1a) temple slaves assigned to the Levites and priests for service in the sanctuary

Aramaic equivalent: ne.tin (נְתִין "temple servant" H5412)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Nehemiah 7:73

Range of meaning

A passive form of the verb natan, 'to give': 'the given ones,' meaning people dedicated or donated to the sanctuary for its service. In the Bible the word occurs only in Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, always for a class of temple servants listed below the priests, Levites, singers and gatekeepers.

Against the English

KJV transliterates it as 'Nethinims,' which is a double plural because -im is already the Hebrew plural ending. Modern versions (BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV) translate it as 'temple servants.' That is accurate about their role, but it loses the idea that they were 'given' people.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezra 8:20 says David and his officials had 'given' them to serve the Levites. Numbers 8:16–19 uses the same root of the Levites, who are netunim, 'given,' to the priests. Joshua 9:27 makes the Gibeonites 'woodcutters and water-carriers' for the altar, and many interpreters see the origin of the class there. Several Nethinim family names in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 look non-Israelite. The word netinim also turns up in later Jewish writings (for example the Mishnah) as a status category.

Where it appears

1 Chronicles · 1

  1. 1 Chronicles 9:2 וְהַנְּתִינִֽים׃ and the temple servants

    Now the first to resettle their own property in their cities were Israelites, priests, Levites, and temple servants.

Ezra · 7

  1. Ezra 2:43 הַנְּתִינִ֑ים the temple servants

    The temple servants: the descendants of Ziha, the descendants of Hasupha, the descendants of Tabbaoth,

  2. Ezra 2:58 הַנְּתִינִ֔ים the temple servants

    The temple servants and descendants of the servants of Solomon numbered 392 in all.

  3. Ezra 2:70 וְהַנְּתִינִ֖ים and the temple servants

    So the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants, along with some of the people, settled in their own towns; and the rest of the Israelites settled in their towns.

  4. Ezra 7:7 וְהַנְּתִינִ֖ים and the temple servants

    So in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes, he went up to Jerusalem with some of the Israelites, including priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants.

  5. Ezra 8:17 הַנְּתִינִים֙ the temple servants

    And I sent them to Iddo, the leader at Casiphia, with a message for him and his kinsmen, the temple servants at Casiphia, that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our God.

  6. Ezra 8:20 הַנְּתִינִ֗ים נְתִינִ֖ים the temple servants, temple servants

    They also brought 220 of the temple servants, all designated by name. David and the officials had appointed them to assist the Levites.

Nehemiah · 9

  1. Nehemiah 3:26 וְהַ֨נְּתִינִ֔ים and the temple servants

    and the temple servants living on the hill of Ophel made repairs opposite the Water Gate toward the east and the tower that juts out.

  2. Nehemiah 3:31 הַנְּתִינִ֖ים the temple servants

    Next to him, Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs as far as the house of the temple servants and the merchants, opposite the Inspection Gate, and as far as the upper room above the corner.

  3. Nehemiah 7:46 הַנְּתִינִ֑ים the temple servants

    The temple servants: the descendants of Ziha, the descendants of Hasupha, the descendants of Tabbaoth,

  4. Nehemiah 7:60 הַ֨נְּתִינִ֔ים the temple servants

    The temple servants and descendants of the servants of Solomon numbered 392 in all.

  5. Nehemiah 7:73 וְהַנְּתִינִ֛ים and the temple servants

    So the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, and temple servants, along with some of the people and the rest of the Israelites, settled in their own towns. And by the seventh month the Israelites had settled in their towns.

    Here: The Nethinim, a class of temple servants. The name means 'those given' (to the temple), and they did the lower-level labor of the sanctuary.

  6. Nehemiah 10:28 הַנְּתִינִ֗ים the temple servants

    “The rest of the people—the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants, and all who had separated themselves from the people of the land to obey the Law of God—along with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand,

  7. Nehemiah 11:3 וְהַנְּתִינִ֔ים and the temple servants

    These are the heads of the provinces who settled in Jerusalem. (In the villages of Judah, however, each lived on his own property in their towns—the Israelites, priests, Levites, temple servants, and descendants of Solomon’s servants—

  8. Nehemiah 11:21 וְהַנְּתִינִ֖ים הַנְּתִינִֽים׃ פ and the temple servants, the temple servants

    The temple servants lived on the hill of Ophel, with Ziha and Gishpa over them.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.