King James Bible Dictionary

Pleasing to Jehovah, the "servant," the "Ammonite," who joined with those who opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Exile (Nehemiah 2:10). He was a man of great influence, which he exerted in opposition to the Jews, and "sent letters" to Nehemiah "to put him in fear" (Nehemiah 6:17-19). "Eliashib the priest" prepared for him during Nehemiah's absence "a chamber in the courts of the house of God," which on his return grieved Nehemiah sore, and therefore he "cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber" (13:7, 8).

Tobijah, the Lord is good

1. Ancestor of a family of Babylonian captives
Ezra 2:60; Nehemiah 7:62

2. An enemy of the Jews in the time of Nehemiah:

Opposes the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem
Nehemiah 2:10; Nehemiah 2:19; Nehemiah 4:3; Nehemiah 4:7-8

Conspires to injure and intimidate Nehemiah
Nehemiah 6:1-14; Nehemiah 6:19

Subverts nobles of Judah
Nehemiah 6:17-18

Allies himself with Eliashib, the priest
Nehemiah 13:4-9

(goodness of Jehovah).

1. "The children of Tobiah" were a family who returned with Zerubbabel, but were unable to prove their connection with Isr'l

   (Ezra 2:60; Nehemiah 7:62) (B.C. before 536.)

2. "Tobiah the slave, the Ammonite," played a conspicuous part in the rancorous position made by Sanballat the Moabite and his adherents to the rebuilding of Jerusalem. (B.C. 446.) The two races of Moab and Ammon found in these men fit representatives of that hereditary hatred to the Isr'lites which began before the entrance into Caanan, and was not extinct when the Hebrews had ceased to exist as a nation. But Tobiah, though a slave, (Nehemiah 2:10,19)

   unless, this is a title of opprobrium

   and an Ammonite, found means to ally himself with a priestly family, and his son Johanan married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah. (Nehemiah 6:18) He himself was the son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah, (Nehemiah 6:17) and these family relations created for him a strong faction among the Jews.