Besai

Besai is a clan name from the post-exilic returns. The name is preserved only in the family rosters of Ezra and Nehemiah, where the sons of Besai are counted among the Nethinim — the temple servants who came back from Babylon with Zerubbabel.

Besai Among the Nethinim of the First Return

Ezra's enrollment of the returnees lists clan after clan of Nethinim by name. Besai is one of them: "the sons of Uzza, the sons of Paseah, the sons of Besai," (Ezr 2:49). The verse is a fragment of a longer list, situating Besai's house between Paseah and the next group of Nethinim families.

The Parallel Record in Nehemiah

Nehemiah's archive of the same return repeats the list with minor variations in spelling and order, and the sons of Besai appear again: "The sons of Besai, the sons of Meunim, the sons of Nephushesim," (Ne 7:52). Across the two parallel rosters, Besai is preserved as a Nethinim clan that returned with the first wave from exile.