Mehunim

Mehunim — rendered as "Meunim" in every occurrence — names both a foreign people-group on Judah's southern frontier and a Nethinim family whose descendants returned from exile. The two senses share the same form of the name and lie behind the same umbrella term.

A People Defeated by Uzziah

The Chronicler reports the Meunim among the foreign neighbors against whom Uzziah is helped by God: "And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians who dwelt in Gur-baal, and the Meunim" (2 Chronicles 26:7).

The notice fixes them as a people-group on Judah's southern flank, listed alongside Philistines and Arabians, and otherwise unnamed in this narrative.

A Family Among the Returnees

The same name surfaces again in the Nethinim register of the returnees from Babylon, where the sons of Meunim are counted among the families restored to Judah.

The Ezra register sets them between Asnah and Nephisim: "the sons of Asnah, the sons of Meunim, the sons of Nephisim," (Ezra 2:50).

The Nehemiah register repeats the family between slightly varied neighbors: "The sons of Besai, the sons of Meunim, the sons of Nephushesim," (Neh 7:52).

In both registers Meunim is one line in the catalogue and is given no further description.