Tobiah in Smiths Bible Dictionary

(goodness of Jehovah). 1. "The children of Tobiah" were a family who returned with Zerubbabel, but were unable to prove their connection with Israel -- Ezr 2:60; Ne 7:62 (B.C. before 536.) 2. "Tobiah the slave, the Ammonite," played a conspicuous part in the rancorous position made by Sanballat the Moabite and his adherents to the rebuilding of Jerusalem. (B.C. 446.) The two races of Moab and Ammon found in these men fit representatives of that hereditary hatred to the Israelites which began before the entrance into Caanan, and was not extinct when the Hebrews had ceased to exist as a nation. But Tobiah, though a slave, Ne 2:10,19 --unless, this is a title of opprobrium --and an Ammonite, found means to ally himself with a priestly family, and his son Johanan married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah. Ne 6:18 He himself was the son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah, Ne 6:17 and these family relations created for him a strong faction among the Jews.