Nehemiah 2:10 - Exposition

Sanballat . According to Josephus, Sanballat was "satrap of Samaria" under the Persians, and by descent a Cuthaean ('Ant. Jud.,' Nehemiah 11:7 , § 2). He was probably included among the governors to whom Nehemiah had brought letters, and learnt the fact that "a man was come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel" by the delivery of the letters to him. The Horonite , Born, i.e; at one of the two Beth-horons, the upper or the lower, mentioned in Joshua ( Joshua 16:3 , Joshua 16:5 ) as belonging to Ephraim, and now under Samaria. Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite . It has been usual to regard Tobiah as a native chief of the Ammonites, who, after having been a page or other servant at the Persian court, had been made head of the nation. But it seems to be quite as likely that he was a servant of Sanballat's, who stood high in his favour, gave him counsel, and was perhaps his secretary ( Nehemiah 6:17 , Nehemiah 6:19 ). It grieved them exceedingly . From the time that Zerub-babel rejected the co-operation of the Samaritans in the rebuilding of the temple ( Ezra 4:3 ), an enmity set in between the two peoples which continued till the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. The two capitals were too near not to be rivals; and the greater (general) prosperity of Jerusalem made Samaria the bitterer adversary.