Nehemiah 6:18

Many in Judah. Through marriage connections with two Jewish families, Tobiah had made many among the nobility his “sworn” friends, who used their influence to carry out his policies.

Shechaniah. Tobiah’s father-in-law, Shechaniah the son of Arah, was a respectable Jew of the family of Arah, mentioned in Ezra 2:5. Although the name Shechaniah was common at this period of Jewish history, this particular person seems otherwise not to be mentioned in the book of Nehemiah. Meshullam, who had become father-in-law of Tobiah’s daughter, appears among those who shared in the work of rebuilding the wall (chapter 3:4, 30). According to chapter 13:4, Tobiah was also related to the high priest Eliashib, but it is possible that this relationship was not formed until after Nehemiah’s first governorship. The fact that both Tobiah and his son Johanan have genuine Jewish names, with the abbreviated form of Yahweh as part of each name, leads to the conclusion that they were descendants of Israelites of the old northern kingdom, the ten tribes, and had joined the Ammonites (see on chapter 2:10).