Solomon's porch (Hastings' Dictionary)

See PoKCii, and Temple, p. 713". _ SOLOMON'S SERVANTS (.^b^:^■•^:l•; LXX usually douXoi -aXufiuiv [hut see fit/ Jin.]) — In the two lists of r.\iles who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon with Zerubbaliel, (he sons o/ Solomon's serixt7its mo lirst mentioned immediately after the Nc/.

/dnim (Ezr 2^-"', Neh 7"-'^), and then included with them, as though they were suljdivisionsof the same class : ' All the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants, were three hundred and ninetj, two' (Ezr 2=», Neh I""). At Neh 10^ the sons of Solo- mon's servants appear to ho included amongst the Nethinim.

At Neh IP they are again mentioned along with them ; but the parallel list of 1 Ch 9- contents itself with using the more familiar of the two titles, as though the person who inserted this list did not distinguish between Nethinim and sons of Solomon's servants. As to their position and functions it will therefore be suthcient to refer to art. Nkthixim. It is clear from Ezk 44*'- that non, Israelites were employed for many menial duties connected with the temple service.

The caste of foreigners thus referred to may bnve originated from the body of forced lalioureiT. whom Solomon is said to have used in building the temple and other struc- tures (1 K 9-'"-'). 'I'liese would not unnaturally be called Solomon's slaves or servants. After the temple was linished, some of them might he retained for the inferior otlices of the house of God, and the title originally bestowed on them would cling to them.

In succeeding generations the comjiosition of the class would vary from a number of causes : some families would die out, others would he added from prisoners of war and other sources. Nor is there anj- dilliculty in con- ceiving of them as holding together in the E.\ile. We can readily imagine members of the minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church doing so in like circumstances. Torrey (Coiiip. and Hist. Value of Ezrn-Nche7ninh, p. 4U) thinks tliat the mention of them is .

simply an instance of the Chronicler's determination to connect every insti- tution 'uelonging to his own day with David and Solomon. But it may fairly be argued that the very lowliness of the title 'Solomon's slaves' is in favour of its genuineness. No body of men would have been willing to bear it if it had been arbitrarily imposed from without in the days of the second temple. But if it were inherited, the disagreeable connotation would be worn oil' in tlie process of time.

The remark made respecting the family names of the Nethinim must be repeated here. They indicate a foreign origin. There can have been only a small number of persons in each of the families, as will be seen \>y dividing (he total number l)y that of the families. The spelling of the names varies slightlv in the two lists, but there is no ground for the distinction Pochercth of Zebaim (Ezr 2") and Poehereth Zehaim (Neh 1") in AV ; in both places R'V rightly reiirodmes 1'o'hereth-lia.zzebaim.

The Pesh. dillers from MT in two points. At Ezr 1"' — but not at Neh 7* — it gets rid of Solomon's servants entirely, reading y> I \> . I m iCil. JLlo ; LXX B has vloi 570 SOMEIS SON OF GOD •A3Sn<TfK, v.», and i-io! ' ApSr,<r(\i^i, v." At Neh 11 it makes them dwell at Jerusalem, not m the cities of Judah. J- Tayi.ok. SOMEIS (So/nee(!, AV Samis), 1 Es 934 = Shimei, Ezr lU^. SOMETIME, SOMETIMES.

-These forms are u<ied indiscriminately in AV, and (except bir d, ) always in the sense of 'once upon a time, . forn'ievly.' The Gr, is always "[/•,, %tS in every case : in ^^ is 5^ Col 3', Tit 3», 1 F S into ' aforetime' ; in Eph 2'' 5« into 'once ; m Col into ' in time past.' For the indiscriminate spell- | inc, cf. Melvill, Diary, Ix., ' He tuik him to rest, an'd passed oucr that haill day, sum tyme in rest, as it seimed, and sum tymes in pa.ne For some- time,' meanin- ' formerly," cf.

La P Gov. Alas, how sitteth the cite so desolate, yt some tyme was full of people ?' ; and for ' sometimes,^ bhaks._ nich II I li. 54, ' Thy sometimes brother s w-ife. Abhott [Shaks. Gram. p. 51) thinks this is the meauiug also in Merch. of Venice, I. i. IbA— ' Sometimes from her eyea I did receive fair speechless messages. In the mod. sense of ' occasionally ' the only example in AV is Sir 37" (Gr ^Wore) But that meaning was quite common at the time. Ihus Elyot, Governour, ii.

225, ' feome tyme it [Jde^^ may be called faythe, some tyme credence, other whyles truste' ; Tindale, Expos. 30, ' Centnrion is a /aptain of a hundred men ; whom I call some- time a centurion, but for the '^ost VB.yt^\mudeT. captain." •*• HASTINGS.