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Journey of a Passage

Ezra 2:36–58; Nehemiah 7:39–60

Priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers and temple servants

The priestly families agree in both lists (4,289). The singers are 128 in Ezra, 148 in Nehemiah; gatekeepers 139 and 138; the Nethinim and Solomon's servants 392 in both (1 Esdras: 372). Individual names of temple servants vary in spelling and order.

Read Ezra 2:36–58; Nehemiah 7:39–60 in every edition

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew / Aramaic
  1. Original Ezra–NehemiahComposed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Nehemiah 7:44–45 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)Same book in Hebrew tradition
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
    Latin
      English
      1. 1 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha (1611)1611Translated from printed Greek of 1 Esdras
      2. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      Every witness, in order

      1. Composed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)

        Original Ezra–Nehemiah

        – No copy survives

        No original survives.

      2. Same book in Hebrew tradition

        Nehemiah 7:44–45 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)

        ✓ Contains this passage

        How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.

        The singers: the children of Asaph, an hundred forty and eight. The porters… an hundred thirty and eight.

      3. AD 1008

        Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

        ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah

        How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

        הַמְשֹׁרְרִים בְּנֵי אָסָף מֵאָה עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁמֹנָה

        the singers: the children of Asaph, one hundred twenty-eight

        Ezra 2:41.

      4. 1611

        1 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha (1611)

        ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Greek of 1 Esdras

        How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

        the sons of Asaph, an hundred twenty and eight… porters… an hundred thirty and nine… All the ministers of the temple, and the sons of the servants of Solomon, were three hundred seventy and two.

        1 Esdras 5:27–35.

      5. 1611

        King James Bible

        ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

        How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

        The singers: the children of Asaph, an hundred twenty and eight.

      What changed, and why

      Nethinim ("given ones") were temple servants; Joshua 9:27 makes the Gibeonites "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for the altar, and Ezra 8:20 says David appointed the Nethinim to serve the Levites. "Solomon's servants" may descend from the forced laborers of 1 Kings 9:20–21. Some names (Mehunim, Nephusim) suggest Meunite and other non-Israelite origins.

      What the evidence shows

      • Independently documentedEzra 2 and Nehemiah 7 agree on the priestly families' numbers.
      • Plausible, not confirmedThe Nethinim descended from the Gibeonites.

      Sources

      • H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (Word Biblical Commentary 16, 1985)
      • J. Blenkinsopp, Ezra–Nehemiah (Old Testament Library, 1988)

      Related lessons

      • The Names of Those Who Came Home →Ezra 2 lists the returnees: eleven leaders headed by Zerubbabel and Jeshua; families and towns; priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants and the descendants of Solomon's servants; and people who could not prove their ancestry, including priests barred until a priest with Urim and Thummim should arise. The whole assembly is 42,360, with 7,337 servants and 200 singers. The same list appears in Nehemiah 7 and 1 Esdras 5, with many differences.