The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Sophereth, the children of Peruda,
The children of Solomon's servants - the strangers, Canaanites, or original inhabitants of the land, whom that monarch enlisted in the building of the temple (1 Kings 9:20; 2 Chronicles 8:7). From their association with the Nethinim it may be inferred that, after having been reduced to a servile condition, they continued to assist the former in their services. It appears from the small number (Ezra 2:55) who returned, that most of the Nethinims, as well as of Solomon's servants, preferred to remain in Babylon to resume their former course of laborious servitude: and it was probably owing to this circumstance that the comparatively few of this humble class who did return are recorded as carefully and honourably as the priests and Levites.
Ziha. They had dwelt separately (Nehemiah 3:31), as well as had their own superintendents (Nehemiah 11:21); and, judging by this Canaanite name and others which follow, they were selected from their own body (cf. Nehemiah 7:46).