No. 6 in Returning Home
Those who came on the first expedition are listed in Ezra 2. Nehemiah 7 confirms this documentation when he finds the registry after the city wall is rebuilt and the gates are closed. To summarize: Ezra numbers the returning Israelites by their heads of family. He separates out the Levites’ heads of family, Jeshua and Kadmiel (Ezra 2:40). The remaining numbers of the group deal with their position or occupation.
The singers: the sons of Asaph, 128.
The sons of the gatekeepers: the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, and the sons of Shobai, in all 139.
The temple servants: the sons of Ziha, the sons of Hasupha, the sons of Tabbaoth,…
The temple servants, known as the Nethinim, were not of a bloodline of Jacob’s sons. They are first mentioned in Joshua 9. When the Israelites moved into Canaan, conquering the cities of Jericho and Ai, certain people of the cities of Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim tricked the Israelites into making peace with them. These people of Gibeon donned old clothes and items, saying they had come from a far country.
The Israelites took their word for it, made the agreement to be allied with them, and three days later, found they lived in the neighboring cities. Regretting that he and the elders didn’t ask God what to do before making the agreement, Joshua kept the promise, decreeing, “Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God” (Joshua 9:23ESV). (For the full account see the Deception of Gibeon.) The name ‘Nethinim’ is first found in 1 Chronicles 9:2(KJV). Ezra later records the Nethinim as having been appointed by David. “Also of the Nethinims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinims: all of them were expressed by name” (Ezra 8:20KJV). Nethin is transliterated from the Hebrew word nathiyn. The im is the plural ending. (The KJV makes the mistake of adding the ‘s’ to the plural word.) It derives its meaning from nathan, which means to be given, bestowed, or permitted. So, while the Nethinim were part of the returning people, they were servants and not Israelites.
Along with the Nethinim, Ezra lists the children of Solomon’s servants. Hereafter, they are always mentioned with the Nethinim, which gives us to understand that they, too, are not of Israel’s bloodline. They had begun their service under King Solomon, and they returned with Israel to serve as their fathers had done. This shows the Babylonian empire kept Israel’s castes intact after capturing the government leaders (the king, his sons, and the priests). The Nethinim and Solomon’s servants continued as life-servants from Babylonian through Persian rule.
Ezra also records those households that “could not prove their fathers’ houses or their descent, whether they belonged to Israel” (Ezra 2:59ESV). Of this last group, Ezra mentions children of the priests who could not reckon their genealogy.
Also, of the sons of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, and the sons of Barzillai (who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called by their name). These sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but they were not found there, and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. (Ezra 2:61-62ESV)
Those of the priests’ lineage who had married outside of the Levitical bloodline were excluded from entering into the priestly duties.
It is here in the last documents of Israel’s inspired history we see people returning to Jerusalem who were separated out as unclean, either from the congregation or the priestly order. They were either servants who had no Hebrew blood or they had mixed blood. God’s people had to obey His command not to defile themselves with other nations for two reasons. First, the command to be pure, holy, and undefiled before God presented a lesson that would carry over into Christ’s Church. Second, it was necessary for God’s redemption plan to be carried out through His promise to Abraham that through his seed all nations would be blessed. Jesus was to come through Abraham’s line. Intermarriage outside the Hebrew line also meant Jesus would not descend from King David, as prophesied. Later in Ezra, the men of Israel would have to put away the women of other nations with whom they had intermarried. God rejected these unauthorized unions. Here we see an overarching command: to be God’s people we must be given to God and to God alone (Luke 4:8).