This document is about Tobiah (the Ammonite). For other homonyms, refer to the Tobiah document. He was one of the adversaries from the Ammonites who slandered Nehemiah (the governor) to the king, delaying the construction and continuously hindering the work when Nehemiah tried to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 2:7and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house that I will occupy.” The king granted my requests, because of the good hand of my God on me.Nehemiah 2:8Then I came to the governors beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.Nehemiah 2:9When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, because a man had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.Nehemiah 2:10So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.
Nehemiah 2:19Then I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven will prosper us. Therefore we, his servants, will arise and build; but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.”
Nehemiah 6:1Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come! Let’s meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to harm me.Nehemiah 6:2I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I can’t come down. Why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?”Nehemiah 6:3They sent to me four times like this; and I answered them the same way.
이후 스마야(들라야의 아들)에게 뇌물을 주어 느헤미야에게 거짓 정보를 전달했는데, 암살 위협이 있으니 하나님의 성전 안으로 몸을 피신하라는 내용이었다. 이렇게 하여 레위인이 아닌 느헤미야로 하여금 성전 안으로 들어가게 하여 죄를 짓도록 꾸민 것이었는데, 느헤미야는 이를 간파하고 따르지 않았다.
Nehemiah 6:10I said, “Should a man like me flee? Who is there that, being such as I, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.”Nehemiah 6:11I discerned, and behold, God had not sent him; but he pronounced this prophecy against me. Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.Nehemiah 6:12He hired so that I would be afraid, do so, and sin, and that they might have material for an evil report, that they might reproach me.Nehemiah 6:13“Remember, my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and also the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.”Nehemiah 6:14So the wall was finished in the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days.
이런 여러 방해끝에 마침내 성벽이 완성되었는데,그때에도 도비야는 유다 지파의 유력 귀족들과 계속 왕래가 있었고
Nehemiah 6:15When all our enemies heard of it, all the nations that were around us were afraid, and they lost their confidence; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.Nehemiah 6:16Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them.Nehemiah 6:17For there were many in Judah sworn to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah; and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as wife.Nehemiah 6:18Also they spoke of his good deeds before me, and reported my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.Nehemiah 6:19Also they spoke of his good deeds before me, and reported my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.
당시 대제사장이었던 엘리아십(느헤미야 시대 대제사장)과도 친분이 있어, 분명 암몬 사람들은 여호화의 회중에 들지 못하리라는 선포와 함께 내보기로 되어있었음에도, 엘리아십은 성전 안에 이 도비야를 위한 방을 따로 마련해줄 정도 였다.
Nehemiah 13:1because they didn’t meet the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them; however our God turned the curse into a blessing.Nehemiah 13:2It came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.Nehemiah 13:3Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the rooms of the house of our God, being allied to Tobiah,Nehemiah 13:4had prepared for him a great room, where before they laid the meal offerings, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers; and the wave offerings for the priests.Nehemiah 13:5But in all this, I was not at Jerusalem; for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king; and after some days I asked leave of the king,Nehemiah 13:6and I came to Jerusalem, and understood the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in preparing him a room in the courts of God’s house.Nehemiah 13:7It grieved me severely. Therefore I threw all Tobiah’s household stuff out of the room.Nehemiah 13:8Then I commanded, and they cleansed the rooms. I brought into them the vessels of God’s house, with the meal offerings and the frankincense again.Nehemiah 13:9I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them; so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had each fled to his field.