BibleTools.info

58. All the Nethinims. The Nethinims (vs. 43-54) and “Solomon’s servants” (vs. 55-57) were apparently so closely related in origin and work that their number is given as if they were one group. A total of 45 families is represented, averaging eight men each. It is thus apparent that their family units were, for some unknown reason, much smaller than those of the full-blooded Jews. Later, at the time of Ezra, 220 more Nethinims returned (ch. 8:20). Reports must have reached Babylonia that those who returned under Zerubbabel had found good positions in the Temple service, and many more became willing to sever their connections with Mesopotamia and return to Palestine.