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I. THE FIRST RETURN UNDER SHESHBAZZAR chs. 1--6 >
A. The Return from Babylon chs. 1-2 >
2. The exiles who returned ch. 2 >
The temple servants 2:43-54
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The "temple servants"were an order of Israelites that David had established to assist the Levites (8:20). The biblical writers sometimes called them the Nethinim (lit. those given, i.e., dedicated, to God). They may have been the descendants of the Gibeonites whom Joshua had subjugated (Josh. 9:27) and or the descendants of other war captives.47