Nehemiah 13:3 Commentary and Bible Study

There is the comment that when the people heard these things, they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude, presumably for the purposes of worship and entry into the house of God. Before the mixed multitude were cleared out on Nehemiah’s return, ‘Eliashib the priest’ – indeed, he high priest (Nehemiah 3:1, 20) – ‘having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God’ – he seems to have had absolute control over it – ‘was allied unto Tobiah’, a principal enemy. We know about Tobiah from what we have read previously. He is introduced as ‘Tobiah the servant’ (Nehemiah 2:10), but that title describes a high-ranking Persian official, and he is presumed to be the governor of the Ammonite region, which was a section of Samaria just east of Jerusalem. There was a small kind of faction there, with a governor over them, lower in rank than Nehemiah in Jerusalem and Judah, but nevertheless well-rewarded by the Persian empire and an enemy to Judah. We have read in the earlier chapters of his cunning and his murderous plots along with Sanballat and others to take the life of Nehemiah. He is an enemy and he is opposed to the building work, and would even have led armed men against the city of Jerusalem. Three times already we have been told he was an Ammonite (Nehemiah 2:10; 2:19; 4:3), but this man was even allowed to make his headquarters in the temple of the Lord. So what an awful situation, an alliance with the enemy. These are shocking things that you read about. But now Nehemiah returns. Eliashib had always been in league with him. All the time that Nehemiah was there before, Eliashib, functioning as high priest, was in league with the enemy.