Ezra 2:43. The Nethinims.
These were men who assisted the Levites in performing the meanest offices connected with the temple service. Part of them lived in Jerusalem, and part were distributed among the Levitical cities. They are supposed to have been Canaanites reduced to servitude (Josh. 9:21-27) and captives taken in war, who were set apart to this service, and therefore called nethinim: the given, the devoted. They were held in low esteem by the Jews, occupying a social position even lower than the rammer or illegitimate offspring.