Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadInternational Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Shabbethai
Subjects in this Topic:
shab´eÌ„Ì-thı̄ (ש×בּתי, shabbethay, “one born on the Sabbathâ€; Codex Vaticanus ΣαβαθαιÌ, SabathaıÌ; Codex Alexandrinus ΚαββαθαιÌ, KabbathaÄ±Ì = “Sabbateus†of 1 Esdras 9:14): A Levite who opposed (?) Ezra's suggestion that the men who had married foreign wives put them aside (). Kuenen, however, renders the phrase ×–×ת על עמדוּ, ‛aÌ„medhuÌ„ ‛al zoÌ„'th, of which Asahiel and Jahaziah are the subjects, to mean “stand over,†“have charge of,†rather than “stand against,†“oppose†(Gesammelte Abhandlungen, 247 f); this would make Shabbethai, who was in accord with the two men mentioned above, an ally rather than an opponent of Ezra. We incline toward Kuenen's interpretation in view of the position attained by Shabbethai under Nehemiah - one he would have been unlikely to attain had he been hostile to Ezra. He is mentioned among those appointed to explain the Law (), and as one of the chiefs of the Levites who had the oversight of “the outward business of the house of God†().