Nehemiah 2:10

10. Sanballat the Horonite This noted man seems to have been an officer of the Persian government, holding a military command at Samaria. Compare Nehemiah 4:2. He is conspicuous in this history solely from his bitter hostility to the Jews. The Horonite designates him as a native of Horonaim, in the land of Moab: (see Isaiah 15:5; Jeremiah 48:3; Jeremiah 48:5; Jeremiah 48:34:) and his Moabite origin may partly account for his hostility towards Israel.

Tobiah the servant What gave him this title of the servant is not clear. Perhaps he had been a slave and had gained his freedom, but never lost the title and associations of his former servitude; and in such a case a Jewish writer would naturally emphasize the opprobrious epithet. His own and his son’s marriage with the daughter of a Jew created family relationships which proved a source of trouble, (Nehemiah 6:17-19,) and being allied to the high priest Eliashib (Nehemiah 13:4) he secured a chamber in the courts of the temple, from which Nehemiah finally cast out all his household stuff. Nehemiah 13:7-8. He is here designated as the Ammonite, having sprung from that hated race; and, perhaps, his bitterness towards the Jews was owing largely to Ezra’s recent legislation in requiring all Jews to put away their foreign wives, (Ezra 10:0,) for they had intermarried with the Ammonites and Moabites. Ezra 9:1. And these two men, Sanballat and Tobiah, were fit representatives of the ancient and hereditary hatred of their respective races towards Israel.