SHABBETHAI

1. Levite who opposed Ezra’s suggestion that the sons of Israel should divorce the foreign women they had married upon returning to Palestine from exile (Ezr 10:15). He explained the law to the people at Ezra’s reading (Neh 8:7).

2. One of the chiefs of the Levites who oversaw the outside work of the sanctuary during the postexilic period (Neh 11:16). He is perhaps identical with #1 above.