Sanballat

Sanballat the Horonite is the named primary opposer of Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem and of the post-exilic restoration of the Yahweh-house. He enters the narrative paired with Tobiah the slave the Ammonite at the news of Nehemiah's arrival, hardens through public mockery before the Samaria-army, broadens his coalition into an armed conspiracy, attempts to draw Nehemiah out to the plain of Ono, hires a prophet to entrap him by fear, and is named at the end of the book in a marriage-alliance that has reached as far inside as the high-priestly household.

The Horonite Opposer Hears of the Mission

Sanballat is named at his first appearance in the paired-opposer clause Nehemiah attaches to Tobiah at the news of the Jerusalem-arrival: "And when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the slave, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, for man came to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel" (Ne 2:10). The Horonite name-and-tribal-label introduces him as the primary-opposer; the paired Ammonite-slave clause couples him with Tobiah from the start; and the it-grieved-them-exceedingly reaction-clause registers an immediate and intense grief at the welfare-of-Israel purpose Nehemiah has come to advance.

The hostility surfaces a second time when Geshem the Arabian joins the pair: "But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the slave, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that you⁺ do? Will you⁺ rebel against the king?" (Ne 2:19). The grief of the first hearing has hardened into open scorn, and the rebellion-against-the-king question puts the rebuild under the suspicion of revolt.

Mockery before the Samaria-Army

When the wall begins to rise, Sanballat's reaction climbs through five clauses Nehemiah fastens to his name at the chapter opening: "But it came to pass that, when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews" (Ne 4:1). Hearing of the rebuild triggers the anger; the wall-building specifies the content of the report; the inward-reaction escalates from anger to great-indignation; and the outward-action discharges the rage as public mockery.

The mockery is then performed before an audience: "And he spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they leave themselves alone? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, seeing they are burned?" (Ne 4:2). The rapid-fire questions to the Samaria-army cast the rebuild as the work of a feeble people attempting to revive burned stones from rubbish-heaps.

The Broadened Coalition and the Armed Conspiracy

As the wall closes its gaps, Sanballat heads a broadened opposition-roster: "But it came to pass that, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem went forward, [and] that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very angry; and they conspired all of them together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to cause confusion in it" (Ne 4:7-8). The opposition has widened beyond the Horonite-Ammonite pair to include Arabians, Ammonites, and Ashdodites, and the response has shifted from scorn to an armed conspiracy aimed at fighting Jerusalem and causing confusion in it.

The Plain-of-Ono Invitation

Once the wall is gapless but still doorless, Sanballat shifts from open assault to entrapment. The setup is Nehemiah's own report: "Now it came to pass, when it was reported to Sanballat and Tobiah, and to Geshem the Arabian, and to the rest of our enemies, that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left in it (though even to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates)" (Ne 6:1). The dispatch follows: "that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together in [one of] the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do mischief to me" (Ne 6:2). The cohortative come-let-us-meet invitation proposes an out-of-the-way Ono-plain rendezvous as the pretext, and the disclosure-clause unmasks personal harm to the governor as the hidden intent.

The fifth approach drops the meeting-pretext for an open accusation: "Then Sanballat sent his attendant to me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand" (Ne 6:5). The letter alleges among the nations that Nehemiah and the Jews think to rebel, that Nehemiah is building the wall to be their king, and that he has appointed prophets to preach a king-in-Judah message — and proposes a counsel-together meeting on those terms (Ne 6:6-7). Nehemiah's reply denies the charges as a feign out of Sanballat's own heart and prays for strengthened hands (Ne 6:8-9).

The Hired Prophet

When Nehemiah visits the shut-in Shemaiah son of Delaiah son of Mehetabel and is urged into the temple to escape night-killers, he discerns that the prophet has been bought: "And I discerned, and saw that God had not sent him; but he pronounced this prophecy against me: and Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this cause he was hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me" (Ne 6:12-13). The Tobiah-and-Sanballat hire-clause names them as co-purchasers of the false prophecy; the for-this-cause clause sets out the four-step entrapment-logic — fear, action, sin, evil report — by which a temple-flight would have given them grounds for reproach.

Nehemiah's prayer over the episode names Sanballat alongside Tobiah and the prophets who would have put him in fear: "Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and also the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear" (Ne 6:14).

The Marriage-Alliance into the High Priesthood

At the climax of the intermarriage-reform on Nehemiah's return-visit, Sanballat's reach is shown to have penetrated the high-priestly household itself: "And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me" (Ne 13:28). The two-tier genealogy-clause names the offending grandson by his Joiada-father and Eliashib-high-priest-grandfather line; the alliance-clause pairs that high-priestly grandson with Sanballat the Horonite through a marriage-tie; and the therefore-I-chased-him-from-me expulsion-clause registers Nehemiah's direct response — driving the offending grandson out of his own circle — as the consequence of the Sanballat-tie. The opposer who had stood outside the wall mocking the stone-course before the Samaria-army has, by the end of the book, supplied a son-in-law to the grandson of the high priest, and that grandson is chased from the governor's presence.