SANABALLAT (Hebr. Sanballat, in Akkadian Sin-uballit “[the god] Sin gave life”). – Governor (pehāh) of Samaria at the time of Artaxerxes I, who, taking advantage of the anarchy in Jerusalem after the fall, lorded it over the city, together with a certain Tobiah
the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab.
The marriage of one of his daughters to the son of the high priest Eliashib indicates that S. had also sought influential support in Jerusalem. Like his two colleagues, he was a foreigner: he is called, with disparaging intent, a “Horonite” (from Hōrōnajim in Moab) in Neh. 2, 10, 19.
Upon Nehemiah’s arrival in Jerusalem as governor (pehāh), vested with broad royal powers, he sought to dissuade the restorer of Israel from his work of rebuilding the walls, through intimidation and snares, also by
means of hired agents (Num. 6, 1-14), but always without success. He was still in office under Darius II, as appears from the Elephantine papyri. The account concerning him narrated by Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Ind., XI, 7, 2), in connection with the origin of the Samaritan schismatic temple, is largely unfounded. Giovanni Rinaldi