SANBALLAT (Heb. 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 the two colleagues, he was a foreigner: he is called "the Horonite" (from Hōrōnajim in Moab) with a disparaging intent in Neh. 2:10, 19.

On the arrival of Nehemiah in Jerusalem as governor (pehāh) with ample royal powers, he sought to divert the restorer of Israel from his activity in rebuilding the walls, with intimidations and traps, also by means of hired men (Num. 6:1-14), but always without success. He was still in office under Darius II, as appears from the Elephantine papyri. The story told about him by Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Jud., XI, 7, 2), in connection with the origin of the schismatic Samaritan temple, is for the most part unfounded. Giovanni Rinaldi

@incollection{ec10_sanaballat_ebr_sanballat_in_ac, author = {Rinaldi, Giovanni}, title = {Sanaballat (Ebr. Sanballat, in accadico sin-uballit « [il dio] sin diede la vita »)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {1745--1746}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/sanaballat-ebr-sanballat-in-accadico-sin-uballit-il-dio-sin-diede-la-vita} }

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