Bible Dictionaries
Bani

Holman Bible Dictionary

(bay' ni) Personal name meaning, “built.” 1. Man from tribe of Gad in David's special thirty warriors (2 Samuel 23:6 ). 2 . Levite descended from Merari (1 Chronicles 6:46 ). 3 . Ancestor of Uthai of tribe of Judah who was among first Israelites to return to Palestine from Babylonian Exile about 537 B.C. (1 Chronicles 9:4 ). 4 . Original ancestor of clan of whom 642 returned from Babylonian Exile with Zerubbabel about 537 B.C. (Ezra 2:10 ). Nehemiah 7:15 spells the name Binnui and says 648 returned. Same clan apparently had members who had married foreign wives and agreed to divorce them to avoid bringing religious temptation to the covenant community ( Ezra 10:29 ,Ezra 10:29,10:34 ,Ezra 10:34,10:38 ). 5 . Father of Rehum, a Levite who helped Nehemiah repair the wall of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 3:17 ). May be same man who helped Ezra interpret the law to the people (Nehemiah 8:7 ), led the worship service of repentance leading to Nehemiah's covenant to obey God's law (Nehemiah 9:4-5; a second Bani was also involved here), sealed Nehemiah's covenant along with the second Bani (Nehemiah 10:13-14 ). His son Uzzi was overseer of the Levites (Nehemiah 12:22 ).