BANI
(Baʹni) [from a root meaning “build”].
1. A Levite in the line of Merari, and ancestor of the Ethan whom David appointed to temple service.—1Ch 6:31, 44, 46.
2. One of David’s mighty men, a Gadite.—2Sa 23:36.
3. A descendant of Judah through Perez, whose descendants lived in Jerusalem after the exile. (1Ch 9:3, 4) It is possible that this family head was the same as Nos. 4 and 5 or as 4 and 6 below.
4. A family head whose descendants, over 600 in number, returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel. (Ezr 2:1, 10) He is called Binnui at Nehemiah 7:15.—See No. 3 above.
5. A family head, six of whose descendants dismissed their foreign wives and sons in Ezra’s time. Not the same as No. 6 below.—Ezr 10:29, 44; see No. 3 above.
6. A family head in Israel who apparently had 12 descendants who dismissed their foreign wives and sons in Ezra’s day. Not the same as No. 5 above.—Ezr 10:34, 44; see No. 3 above.
7. A Levite whose son Rehum helped repair Jerusalem’s wall in 455 B.C.E. Compare Nos. 8-10, 12 below.—Ne 3:17.
8. A Levite who assisted Ezra with reading and explaining the Law to the people.—Ne 8:7; 9:4, 5; see No. 7 above.
9. The second-listed of two Levites named Bani who were on the platform when public confession of Israel’s sins was made in 455 B.C.E.—Ne 9:4.
10. A Levite whose descendant, if not he himself, attested by seal to Nehemiah’s “trustworthy arrangement.”—Ne 9:38; 10:13.
11. One of “the heads of the people” whose descendant, if not he himself, also attested to the “trustworthy arrangement.”—Ne 9:38; 10:14.
12. A Levite descendant of Asaph whose son Uzzi was overseer of the Levites in Jerusalem in the days of Nehemiah.—Ne 11:22; see No. 7 above.