Nehemiah’s Three Named Opponents (2:19)

• The name Sanballat appears as governor of Samaria in a papyrus from Elephantine (No. 30; Cowley, Aramaic Papyri, 107–19), on bullae and papyri from Wadi ed-Daliyeh (Cross, “The Papyri,” 18, 20–22, Plate 61; Gropp, Wadi Daliyeh II, Plates XII, XIV, XVII; Winn Leith, Wadi Daliyeh I, 10, 23–24), and in Josephus (Antiquities 11.7.2–11.8.7).

• The name “Geshem” is found as “Geršu” on silver bowls from Tell el-Maskhuta (Dumbrell, “Tell el-Maskhuta Bowls”).

• Tobiah is usually related to the Tobiad family who appears in 2 Macc 3:11 and Josephus (Antiquities 12.4.1–11; 12.5.1). Thus all three were likely dynastic governors of surrounding medinahs. The tensions between these governors is best understood as typical provincial politics (Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 587; Fitzpatrick-McKinley, “What Did Nehemiah Do for Judaism?” 98).