Frequent [is] the mention of the Nethinim in the divine Codex [Scripture], and indeed in such a way that they are understood to pertain to some service of the tabernacle and altar, since they are numbered almost with the ministers of the temple, and often after the Levites, and the temple’s doorkeepers and singers (1 Chron. 9:2; 1 Esdras [Ezra] 2:70; ch. 7:2 and 24; ch. 8:20; 2 Esdras [Nehemiah] 3:26 and 31; ch. 7:46, 60, 73; ch. 10:28; ch. 11:3 and 21). But [that] these Gabaonites [are] so called [Nethinim], no one, that I know of, doubts. First: Because [they are named] after the Priests, Levites, singers, and doorkeepers, [and] the other ministers of the temple, besides the water-carriers and wood-cutters. Secondly: Because the name fits. For the Hebrew word “nathan” means “to give.” But in this place (last verse), in the Hebrew, “vaiitheneem Iehoshua” — that is, “And Joshua gave them, on that day, [as] cutters of wood and drawers of water, to the multitude and to the altar of the Lord.” And in the same way, Ezra ch. 8, v. 20, “ou min hannethinim”
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“ou min hannethinim schenathan David,” that is, “And of the Nethinim whom David gave.” For the Gabaonites were given [“nethinim” = “given”] to the temple and altar of the Lord, when they could otherwise have been applied to other, profane, uses, as was said above (q. 14). Thirdly: So also Sigonius judges concerning the Nethinim (bk. 5, On the Republic of the Hebrews, ch. 7); [and] Masius, Rashi, and other Rabbis; our Villalpandus (bk. 3, On the City, ch. 23, p. 207); and, of the Innovators, Junius and Tremellius on this passage, [and] Peter Martyr (on 3 Kings [1 Kings], ch. 7). But it can be objected [that] one sees, from the already-cited Ezra ch. 8, [that] the Nethinim were given and appointed ministers of the altar, first of all, by David. For although Joshua gave the Gabaonites, yet he does not seem to have distinguished them by the name of Nethinim. The cited Sigonius and Rashi answer [that] this is true: [that] they took the name of these [Nethinim] from David, but the thing [reality] and the service from Joshua. But Masius prefers [that] both the thing and the name existed already from the times of Joshua, [though] Ezra mentions David as, as it were, their author — because, as he [David] reduced the Priests and Levites into certain classes and turns of ministry by a new order (1 Chron. 23), so also [he did] the Gabaonites, or those Nethinim. Nay, is it not certain [that] David adjoined certain others, from the subdued and subject nations, to the same ministries? — especially since Saul had killed many of the Gabaonites (2 Kings [2 Samuel] 21), as Abulensis hints (same place, q. 12). But Villalpandus teaches (in the cited place) [that] their habitation was then in Ophel [Orphelim], a certain [place] like a workhouse [ergastulum]. But Rabbi Maimonides treats copiously of these (in [the] Halakhoth “Issurei Biah,” ch. 12, fol. 135), and says [that] the Davidic Nethinim were punished with a heavier penalty than the Gabaonites [were] by Joshua. For these [Davidic ones] — since [when] there was no sanctuary — could enter into the assembly; but those [Gabaonites] could not [do so] forever, even when there was no sanctuary. And that Rabbi adds the cause of this heavier penalty: that David had seen the excessive impudence and cruelty of the Gabaonites against the posterity of Saul (2 Kings [2 Samuel], ch. 21); and therefore, lest the Nethinim too grow too insolent, he wished them to be pressed [oppressed] more heavily.