Shabbethai

In Bible versions:

Shabbethai: NET AVS NIV NRSV NASB TEV

a Levite who objected to Israel's putting away heathen wives
a Levite who helped Ezra explain the reading of the law
a Levite supervisor for rebuilding the temple under Nehemiah

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my rest

Hebrew

Strongs #07678: ytbv Shabb@thay

Shabbethai = "sabbatical"

1) a Levite in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah

7678 Shabbthay shab-beth-ah'-ee

from 7676; restful; Shabbethai, the name of three
Israelites:-Shabbethai.
see HEBREW for 07676

Shabbethai [EBD]

Sabbath-born, a Levite who assisted in expounding the law and investigating into the illegal marriages of the Jews (Ezra 10:15; Neh. 8:7; 11:16).

Shabbethai [NAVE]

SHABBETHAI
1. A Levite, assistant to Ezra, Ezra 10:15.
2. An expounder of the law, Neh. 8:7.
3. A chief Levite, attendant of the temple, Neh. 11:16.

SHABBETHAI [SMITH]

(sabbatical) a Levite in the time of Ezra. (Ezra 10:15) It is apparently the same who with Jeshua and others instructed the people in the knowledge of the law. (Nehemiah 8:7) (B.C. 450.)

SHABBETHAI [ISBE]

SHABBETHAI - shab'-e-thi (shabbethay, "one born on the Sabbath"; Codex Vaticanus Sabathai; Codex Alexandrinus Kabbathai = "Sabbateus" of 1 Esdras 9:14): A Levite who opposed (?) Ezra's suggestion that the men who had married foreign wives put them aside (Ezr 10:15). Kuenen, however, renders the phrase `amedhu `al zo'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 (Neh 8:7), and as one of the chiefs of the Levites who had the oversight of "the outward business of the house of God" (Neh 11:16).

Horace J. Wolf