- NETHANIAH given of Jehovah. (1.) One of Asaph’s sons, appointed by
David to minister in the temple (1 Chronicles 25:2, 12).
(2.) A Levite sent by Jehoshaphat to teach the law (2 Chronicles 17:8).
(3.) Jeremiah 36:14.
(4.) 2 Kings 25:23, 25.
- NETHINIM the name given to the hereditary temple servants in all the
post-Exilian books of Scripture. The word means given, i.e., “those set
apart”, viz., to the menial work of the sanctuary for the Levites. The name
occurs seventeen times, and in each case in the Authorized Version
incorrectly terminates in “s”, “Nethinims;” in the Revised Version,
correctly without the “s” (Ezra 2:70; 7:7, 24; 8:20, etc.). The tradition is
that the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:27) were the original caste, afterwards called
Nethinim. Their numbers were added to afterwards from captives taken in
battle; and they were formally given by David to the Levites (Ezra 8:20),
and so were called Nethinim, i.e., the given ones, given to the Levites to be
their servants. Only 612 Nethinim returned from Babylon (Ezra 2:58;
8:20). They were under the control of a chief from among themselves
(2:43; Nehemiah 7:46). No reference to them appears in the New
Testament, because it is probable that they became merged in the general
body of the Jewish people. - NETOPHAH distillation; dropping, a town in Judah, in the
neighbourhood, probably, of Bethlehem (Nehemiah 7:26; 1 Chronicles
2:54). Two of David’s guards were Netophathites (1 Chronicles 27:13,
15). It has been identified with the ruins of Metoba, or Um Toba, to the
north-east of Bethlehem. - NETTLE (1.) Hebrews haral, “pricking” or “burning,” Proverbs 24:30, 31
(R.V. marg., “wild vetches”); Job 30:7; Zephaniah 2:9. Many have
supposed that some thorny or prickly plant is intended by this word, such
as the bramble, the thistle, the wild plum, the cactus or prickly pear, etc. It
may probably be a species of mustard, the Sinapis arvensis, which is a
pernicious weed abounding in corn-fields. Tristram thinks that this word
“designates the prickly acanthus (Acanthus spinosus), a very common and
troublesome weed in the plains of Palestine.”
(2.) Hebrews qimmosh, Isaiah 34:13; Hos. 9:6; Proverbs 24:31 (in both
versions, “thorns”). This word has been regarded as denoting thorns,