Set aside for service, compared to bastards in Talmudic times, brings to mind Psalm 69:12, “They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.”
In Luke 4:18 Jesus came as the suffering servant, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,"
However, in verse 19 Jesus adds "To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
The name Nethinim is a plural form derived from the verb נתן (natan) meaning to give. They are mentioned as early as 1 Chronicles 9:2, “Now the first inhabitants that dwelt in their possessions in their cities were, the Israelites, the priests, Levites, and the Nethinims.”
As for their genealogy, Ezra 2:43, “The Nethinims: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth,” Ezra 2:58, “All the Nethinims, and the children of Solomon's servants, were three hundred ninety and two.”
They had their own city. Ezra 2:70, “So the priests, and the Levites, and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities. According to Nehemiah 3:26 the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel.
Surfing the Internet for "Who were the Nethinims" resulted in only about 20,000 hits.
“Nethinim (or Netinim, or Nathinites or Nathineans) (Hebrew: הַנְּתִינִים, "the given ones") was the name given to the Temple assistants in ancient Jerusalem. The term was applied originally in the Book of Joshua (where it is found in its verbal form) to the Gibeonites who converted during the time of Joshua, later in the Book of Ezra they include the Avdei Shlomo ("Servants of Solomon") the descendants of the remnant of the Canaanite people in the land.”
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nethinim]
“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.”
[http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/nethinim/]
Not so kind was this description. “In Talmudic times the Nethinim were put on a level with bastards, and their descendants, male and female, were interdicted from marriage with Israelites for all time; this is said to have been established by David) or by Ezra. Nethinim were allowed to marry only proselytes, freedmen, bastards, and foundlings In tables of precedence they are reckoned very low, coming after bastards.” Interestingly, Jesus had two proselytes in His genealogy.
[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11451-nethinim] Talmudic references deleted.
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