1 Chronicles 9:2

2. Israelites… priests… Levites… Nethinim Four classes of inhabitants. The Israelites here denote the mass of the people, the laity, as distinguished from the three classes next named.

The Nethinim The given ones. Hebrew, נתינים ; Septuagint οι δεδομενοι . Here this name first occurs as an appellative, though the participle Nethunim, ( נתונם ,) from the same root, is applied to the Levites of the time of Moses.

Numbers 3:9; Numbers 8:19. The Levites were given to Aaron and his sons to do service in the tabernacle. At a later time a number of captive Midianites were given to the Levites to assist them in the charge of the tabernacle, (Numbers 31:47;) and still later the Gibeonites were also given to be “hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord.” Joshua 9:27. Jewish tradition regards the Nethinim as descendants of those ancient Gibeonitish sanctuary slaves, so that they seem ever to have borne the stigma of a Canaanitish origin. Their work was to perform the menial and laborious service connected with the sanctuary, such as carrying wood and water, and any similar labour which the Levites might require of them. “The only period at which they rise into any thing like prominence, is that of the return from the captivity. In that return the priests were conspicuous and numerous; but the Levites, for some reason unknown to us, hung back. Under Zerubbabel there were but three hundred and forty-one Levites to four thousand two hundred and eighty-nine priests. Ezra 2:36-42. Under Ezra none came up till after a special call. Ezra 8:15. The services of the Nethinim were consequently of more importance, but in their case, also, the small number of those that joined indicates that many preferred remaining in the land of their exile to returning to their old service. Those that did come were consequently thought worthy of special mention. The names of their families were registered with as much care as those of the priests. Ezra 2:43-58. They were admitted, in strict conformity to the letter of the rule of Deuteronomy 29:11, to join in the great covenant with which the restored people inaugurated its new life. Nehemiah 10:28. They, like the priests and Levites, were exempted from taxation by the Persian satraps. Ezra 7:24. They were also under the control of a chief of their own body. Ezra 2:43; Nehemiah 7:46. They took an active part in the work of rebuilding the city, (Nehemiah 3:26,) and the tower of Ophel was assigned to some of them as a residence, (Nehemiah 11:21,) while others dwelt with the Levites in their cities. Ezra 2:70. They took their place in the chronicles of the time as next in order to the Levites.” SMITH’S Bib. Dict.