Bible Dictionary

TEMPLE KEEPERS (SERVANTS)

Temple & Tabernacle • Old Testament

Temple keepers or servants were non-Israelite or subordinate workers assigned to duties connected with the sanctuary, such as carrying wood and water. Ezekiel condemned the use of uncircumcised foreigners in holy service and directed that suitable Levites perform these duties.

Definition

Temple keepers or servants were subordinate workers assigned to duties connected with the tabernacle or temple. Such service included carrying wood and water and guarding or maintaining the sanctuary. The biblical notices explain the presence of a non-Israelite or otherwise subordinate class serving at holy places.

Biblical Usage

Levites received persons and animals taken after the conquest of Midian for the charge of the tabernacle. The Gibeonites were made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and altar. Ezekiel condemned the admission of uncircumcised foreigners into the sanctuary and directed that degraded Levites perform the ordinary temple duties, while the sons of Zadok offered sacrifices.

Historical Background

The source connects the origin of sanctuary servants with the incorporation of people from Midian and Gibeon into duties assigned to the tabernacle and altar. Ezekiel’s arrangement included a special room in the inner court for priests who kept charge of the temple.

Related Figures

Historical Bible Dictionaries

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)

After the conquest of Midian, "Moses took one drawn out of every fifty, both of man and of beast, and gave them unto the Levites, that kept the charge of the tabernacle of Yahweh" (Nu 31:47; compare 31:30). Similarly, after the deception of Joshua by the Gibeonites, "Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of Yahweh, unto this day" (Jos 9:27). The object of these notices, evidently, is to explain how a non-Israelitish class of sanctuary servants had taken their origin. Their existence at the time of Ezekiel, however, is the object of one of the latter's severest denunciations: "Ye have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to profane it. .... And ye have not kept the charge of my holy things; but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves" (Eze 44:7 f). In place of these servants or "keepers" Ezekiel directs that such Levites are to be employed as have been degraded from priestly privileges for participating in idolatrous worship. On them shall devolve all the various duties of the temple except the actual offering of sacrifices, which is reserved for "the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok" (44:10-15). For the use of this deposed class, "the priests, the keepers of the charge of the house," is reserved a special room in the inner court of the temple (40:44 f).See, further, NETHINIM.Burton Scott Easton

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