Sotai appears in the lists of returning exiles as the head of a family among 'Solomon's servants'—a group of temple servants or administrative personnel. The name occurs in both Ezra 2:55 and Nehemiah 7:57, the parallel registers of those who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel. Minor spelling variation exists between the two passages (with vav or without), but they clearly refer to the same family group. The Septuagint shows various attempts to transliterate the name, indicating the kind of textual diversity common in genealogical lists preserved through centuries of transmission.