person · also judges
Dinaites
דִּינָיֵא
The Dinaites were one of the groups who wrote to King Artaxerxes, opposing the rebuilding of Jerusalem during Ezra's time.
- verses
- 1
- first named
- Ezra 4:9
Description
Who was Dinaites?
The Dinaites are mentioned in Ezr.4.9 as one of several groups who wrote a letter to King Artaxerxes of Persia, opposing the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. This letter was part of a larger effort by the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin to halt the reconstruction work that had begun under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Jeshua.
The Dinaites are listed alongside other groups such as the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, and the people of Susa, Erech, and Babylon. These groups are collectively referred to as "the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Osnappar brought over and settled in the cities of Samaria" (Ezr.4.10). Osnappar is likely another name for the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who was known for his policy of resettling conquered peoples.
The letter these groups sent to Artaxerxes contained accusations against the Jews, claiming that if the city were rebuilt and its walls completed, the Jews would rebel and cause damage to the royal revenue. As a result of this letter, the rebuilding work was temporarily halted until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia (Ezr.4.24).
Apart from this single mention in Ezra, no further information is provided about the Dinaites or their specific origins. Their inclusion in the list of opposing groups highlights the challenges and opposition faced by the Jews as they sought to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple following their return from Babylonian exile.
Relations
Direct connections
The kinship import reads the registry's own columns — parent, child, sibling, spouse — for every entity in it, and records none here. An extracted relation would be listed beside them, and none names this person either.
Not stated
No family is recorded for this person.
Places
Where this happens
A person is placed by the events they take part in, and an event has to clear three things to place them: it must say where it happened, that place must be one the gazetteer can put a coordinate on, and the verse must report it rather than foretell, command or ask it. Nothing anchored here clears all three. Where the text names a setting no gazetteer surveys — a vineyard, a palace, a plot of ground — it is left off rather than guessed at; where a place is named only in a prophecy, the map does not draw what was said to be coming as though it had happened; and a place reached only through a relation is not inherited, because standing beside somebody is not being somewhere.
No verse Atlas has read as a report puts this person anywhere.
Not read yet
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — one, across 1 book.
Onward
Where this page goes
Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Sources