Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TOBIAH

(Heb. ṭôḇîyâ)

1. The head of a family that returned to Judah with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and whose Israelite ancestry was not recorded in the genealogies acceptable to the scribes responsible for the list in Ezra 2:60; Neh. 7:62; 1 Esdr. 5:37.

2. One who, with Sanballat the Horonite and Geshem the Arab, opposed Nehemiah’s journey to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:10, 19) and his plans for the city. The three are vilified in the book of Nehemiah, but seem to have considered themselves loyal servants of the Persian king Artaxerxes I and to have regarded Nehemiah a traitor for desiring to re-establish Jerusalem as a center of government with a king (Neh. 2:19; cf. 6:6-7). The three were prepared to use force, if necessary, to stifle Nehemiah’s ambitions (Neh. 4:1-8[MT 3:33–4:2]), which probably threatened their own interests in Judah. When they requested a meeting with Nehemiah to discuss his actions, he rejected their overture (Neh. 6:1-9).

Tobiah is identified as “the Ammonite,” which suggests he exercised political control over that area. He was allied with nobles in Judah (Neh. 6:17), who may well have opposed Nehemiah’s reforms for economic, political, and/or religious reasons. Further, he was related by marriage to the high priest Eliashib, who prepared a living space for him within the temple precincts while Nehemiah was out of the city (Neh. 13:4-9). If he was descended from Tobiah 1, he may have felt entitled to a place in the temple; Nehemiah nevertheless had him ousted. Even so, he was the head of the later Tobiad family that rivaled the Oniads for control of Jerusalem during the Hellenistic period.

Paul L. Redditt

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TOBIAH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)