Nehemiah 4:1–7 Summary: Sanballat put together

Nehemiah 4:1–7
Summary: Sanballat put together an alliance
against Israel and the threat of rebuilding. This
alliance now surrounded Jerusalem: the
Samaritans on the north, the Ammonites on the
east, the Arabians on the south, and the men of
Ashdod on the west. Since the time of the
Assyrian conquest of Palestine, the Philistine
territory had been a separate province and was
called Ashdod. You asked for a paragraph, and you have it
above, now for my need to be thorough, here is
the rest of the story…
Background – In Ezra 4 the Samaritans met Ezra on his way to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and asked if they could help rebuild the Temple. Zerubbabel told them that they had nothing in common with them and would have no part in the re-­‐build. From that point on they tried to stop the work. They sent a letter back to King Darius to tell him of the history of Jerusalem and its record of rising up and rebelling, so Darius had the work stopped for a time. So the track record of these groups to stop the work was pretty good. The reason Tobiah was an enemy is in Ezra 2:59–60 “Another group returned at this time from the towns of Tel-­‐melah, Tel-­‐harsha, Kerub, Addan, and Immer. However, they could not prove that they or their families were descendants of Israel. This group included the families of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda—a total of 652 people.” “Sanballat the Horonite” probably was from one of the Beth-­‐horons about eighteen miles northwest of Jerusalem, although some suggest the Moabite town of Horonaim. According to an Elephantine Papyrus, Sanballat was governor of Samaria in 408 b.c. Since his sons were acting for him at that time, he probably was elderly. These verses imply that he already was governor of Samaria in Nehemiah’s time. “Tobiah the Ammonite official” was likely governor of Ammon, although he may have been an Ammonite official under Sanballat’s authority. Tobiah is a Jewish name and not Ammonite, but the Tobiad family was to have influence in Ammon for a long time. These Tobiads may have been descendants of the Tobiah who in Ezra 2:60 was rejected from the Jewish community because “they could not show that their families were descended from Israel.” If so, their long-­‐standing enmity against the Jewish community may have begun at that time.1 About 515 BC, When the Jews succeeded in completing rebuilding Jerusalem, Tobiah went off in a huff, and built his own temple and royal palace, which was located transjordan in his native homeland of the Ammonites. The temple can be seen today with amazing full size rock carved lions all the way around the top of the temple. There are also lions at ground level. One is pictured below. There are many "house of David" symbols including lily flowers and capitals of the same style that David used. Tobiah's royal palace was built about 2 kms away up in the side of a rock cliff. It was a massive structure and twice an inscription can be found on the palace walls that identify it as "Tobiah". Here is the first "Tobiah" inscription right of the door that is cut out of solid rock. 1 Mervin Breneman, vol. 10, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, electronic ed., Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001), 178-­‐79.