Bible Strands
Ezra 2:58
The temple servants and descendants of the servants of Solomon numbered 392 in all.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ezra records a post-exilic census, listing returning families and assigned groups by their ancestral origins and community roles. The passage identifies a specific cohort of temple personnel and Solomon’s former servants among those rebuilding Jerusalem.
The words — הַנְּתִינִים (ha./ne.ti.Nim) translates to the temple servants, paired with עַבְדֵי שְׁלֹמֹה ('av.Dei she.lo.Moh) for the servants of Solomon. The Hebrew כָּל (Kal) and the numeral sequence שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת וְתִשְׁעִים (she.Losh me.'ot ve.tish.'Im) explicitly record their total as 392.
The thread — The text links this group to 1 Chronicles 9:2, where temple servants are listed among the first to resettle in their cities, and to 1 Kings 9:21 and Joshua 9:21, which trace the origin of Solomon’s servants to the remaining Canaanite populations and the Gibeonite covenant.
Why it lands — The verse demands a precise accounting of a numbered, functionally distinct group within the restored community. It requires the reader to treat these individuals as a documented historical cohort with a fixed liturgical assignment rather than a generalized category.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
All the Nethinims, and the children of Solomon’s servants, were three hundred ninety and two.
Cross-references
- 1 Chronicles 9:2 Now the first to resettle their own property in their cities were Israelites, priests, Levites, and temple servants.
- 1 Kings 9:21 their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.
- Joshua 9:21 They continued, “Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers for the whole congregation.” So the leaders kept their promise.
- Joshua 9:23 Now therefore you are under a curse and will perpetually serve as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”
- Joshua 9:27 On that day he made them woodcutters and water carriers, as they are to this day for the congregation of the LORD and for the altar at the place He would choose.
- Ezra 7:7 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.
- Nehemiah 3:26 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.
- Nehemiah 7:60 The temple servants and descendants of the servants of Solomon numbered 392 in all.