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TOBIAH
1. Forefather of a family of people who returned with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem following the exile. This family was not able to prove their Jewish descent (Ezr 2:60; Neh 7:62).
2. Ammonite who opposed Nehemiah when he arrived in Jerusalem about 445 BC. Tobiah was known as “the Ammonite official” (Neh 2:10, 19), a designation associated with a person of high office, such as a governor. He, together with Sanballat and Geshem, the other leading opponents of the reconstruction of the walls, were high-ranking officers in the Persian Empire. He was connected by marriage with the Jews in two ways. He married the daughter of Shecaniah, the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah (6:18). These marriage relations to a prominent Jerusalem family gave him strong ties with the Jerusalem aristocracy (v 17).
Nehemiah had to face the threat posed by Tobiah and his influential allies. Nehemiah was charged with the intent of leading the Jerusalem population in a revolt against King Artaxerxes (Neh 2:19). As the work of rebuilding the wall progressed, Tobiah joined in the conspiracy of besieging Jerusalem (4:8). Nehemiah ordered the Jews to defend themselves. They continued their labors of repairing the wall with the protection of armed guards, and when the enemy forces came closer, every worker held a weapon in addition to his trowel (vv 17-19). They were encouraged by the belief that “our God will fight for us” (v 20). Tobiah also joined in the plot to assassinate Nehemiah after the walls were rebuilt (6:2-4). Nehemiah was further tested by libelous reports of insurrection and by a Jerusalemite hired by the allies to tempt Nehemiah into entering the temple proper and thereby discredit his standing among the faithful (vv 5-13).
After Nehemiah left Jerusalem in order to report to Artaxerxes, Tobiah succeeded in reestablishing himself with those who had remained faithful to him. The priest Eliashib was also related to Tobiah and gave in to Tobiah by preparing a large room previously used for offerings in the temple (Neh 13:4-5). Tobiah used these quarters when visiting Jerusalem. One of Nehemiah’s first actions, upon his return, was to evict Tobiah from the temple (vv 8-9) and then restore the room for its proper use.