Sanballat

Sanballat the Horonite was a governor or official of Samaria who became the primary adversary of Nehemiah's mission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. When Nehemiah arrived in Judea with the commission of King Artaxerxes (Neh. 2:10), Sanballat and his allies — Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab — were displeased that anyone should come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. They employed a progression of tactics to hinder the rebuilding: mockery and ridicule (Neh. 4:1–3), threats of military intervention (Neh. 4:8), false accusation of rebellion before Artaxerxes (Neh. 2:19), attempted entrapment by inviting Nehemiah to a conference (Neh. 6:1–4), and hiring a false prophet to intimidate him (Neh. 6:10–14). All these efforts failed. Sanballat's family had penetrated the Jerusalem priesthood through the marriage of his daughter to the son of the high priest Joiada, a connection that Nehemiah expelled (Neh. 13:28). The Elephantine papyri from Egypt (c. 407 BC) independently confirm Sanballat's existence and the name of his sons Delaiah and Shelemiah.