At first in the community of the second temple the
Levites continued to be distinguished from the singers, porters,
and Nethinim (Ezra ii. 41-58), guilds which from the outset were
much more numerous and which rapidly grew (Nehemiah xi. 17, 19, 36,
xii. 28 seq.; 1Chronicles ix. 16, 22, 25). But the distinction
had in fact no longer any actual basis, once the Levites had been
degraded to the rank of temple-servitors and become Nethinim to the
priests (Numbers iii. 9). Hence, where the Chronicler, who is at
the same time the author of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, is not
reproducing old sources but is writing freely, he regards the
singers also and the porters as Levites. By artificial genealogies
of rather a rough and ready kind the three families of singers,
Heman, Asaph, and Ethan are traced up (1Chronicles v1.. 1 seq.)
to the old Levitical families of Kohath, Gershon, and Merari
(see Graf, as above, p. 231; and Ewald, iii. p. 380 seq.).
How far the distinction between the Nethinim and the Levites
was afterwards maintained (Josh. ix. 21 seq., I Esdras i. 3;
Ezra viii. 20) is not clear. It would not be amiss if Ezekiel's
intention of banishing foreigners from the temple found its
fulfilment only through these heathen hieroduli, the Mehunim,
the Nephisim, the sons of Shalmai, and the others whose
foreign-sounding names are given in Ezra ii.
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