Kadmiel

Kadmiel is a Levite of the post-exilic restoration, named in the returnees' census, in the supervision of the temple rebuilding, in the public confession at the water gate, in the sealing of the covenant, and in the rosters of the wall dedication. The entries are sometimes separated into a Levite and a Levite who assisted in leading the devotions of the people, but the same name surfaces across both Ezra and Nehemiah in the same paired company — Jeshua, Kadmiel, Binnui, Hodaviah — so the material reads as one continuous Levitical witness.

A Levite of the Return

The first census of the return places Kadmiel in the head-list of the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel. Ezr 2:40 reports, "The Levites: the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, through Binnui [and] Hodaviah, seventy and four." The parallel register in Ne 7:43 carries the same line with a variant spelling for the fourth name: "The Levites: the sons of Jeshua, of Kadmiel, of Binnui, of Hodevah, seventy and four." In both notices the Levitical order is small — only seventy-four men — and Kadmiel stands second only to Jeshua at the head of it.

Oversight at the Foundation

When the builders began work on the second temple, Kadmiel is named again at the head of the supervisory company. Ezr 3:9 reads, "Then Jeshua stood with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and Binnui [and] Hodaviah together, to have the oversight of the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brothers the Levites." Ezra immediately ties the Levitical oversight to the liturgical scene that follows in Ezr 3:10-11, where the priests with trumpets and "the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals" praise Yahweh "after the order of David king of Israel" as the foundation is laid. Kadmiel is not named in the music itself, but his order is the one set over the work whose completion the music marks.

Leading the Devotions

In Nehemiah's account of the great day of confession, Kadmiel appears twice on the platform. Ne 9:4 names him among those who "stood up on the stairs of the Levites" and "cried with a loud voice to Yahweh their God" — Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani. Ne 9:5 then re-lists the Levites who summoned the people to praise: "Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless Yahweh your⁺ God from everlasting to everlasting; and let them bless your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise." Kadmiel is in the second position of the second list, immediately after Jeshua, the same pairing the census records have already shown.

Sealing the Covenant

When the people set their seal to the renewed covenant, Kadmiel is one of the Levitical signatories. Ne 10:9 reads, "And the Levites: namely, Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel." The list is short and the order is again the familiar Jeshua-Binnui- Kadmiel grouping that runs through the earlier rosters.

In the Rosters of the Wall Dedication

The two final notices are in Nehemiah's compiled list of Levites who came up with Zerubbabel and continued in office. Ne 12:8 has, "Moreover the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, [and] Mattaniah, who was over the thanksgiving, he and his brothers." Here Kadmiel stands among the Levites whose duty the verse explicitly ties to thanksgiving. Ne 12:24 names him again, this time as a father of one of the chiefs: "And the chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers next to them, to praise and give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, watch next to watch." A UPDV editorial footnote at 12:24 notes that "the son of" probably originally read "Binnui," although no textual witness preserves it; the verse as it stands gives Kadmiel as a father in the line whose service is "to praise and give thanks."

The Pattern Across the Lists

Across all eight notices the same handful of names recur in the same order: Jeshua first, Kadmiel close behind, Binnui and Hodaviah (or Hodevah) attached. The editorial division between a Levite and a Levite who assisted in leading the devotions of the people is a reading convenience; the texts themselves give Kadmiel as a head of the small Levitical order that returned, oversaw the foundation work, called the people to confession and praise, sealed the covenant, and served in the dedication-day rosters.