Nehemiah 13:28

And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest,.... A grandson of the high priest; for the high priest here is Eliashib, according to our version, and not Joiada his son, according to Dr.

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.

Joiada; said by Josephus to be that Manasses who by Sanballat’ s interest procured liberty to build the Samaritan temple in Mount Gerizim; to which those priests who had married strange wives, or been otherwise criminal, betook themselves, and with or after them others of the people in the same or like circumstances. I chased him from me, i.e. from my presence and court, and from the city and temple, and all the privileges of the priesthood, and from the whole congregation and church of Israel, whereof I am a member.

Nehemiah 13:28 And [one] of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, [was] son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me.Ver. 28. And one of the sons of Joiada] His grandson Manasses, brother to Jaddua the high priest, a vile apostate, and first author of that famous schism and deadly feud between the Samaritans and Jews, John 4:20 (Joseph. lib. xi.). Was son-in-law to Sanballat] Who, to keep him to his wife, built a fair temple on Mount Gerizim, hard by the city of Sychem, and made Manasses chief priest thereof. Therefore I chased him from me] I caused him to be excommunicated, and banished from amongst us. Remember them, O my God] For evil, as me for good, Nehemiah 13:31, and in both remember the relation that is between thee and my soul. Woe be to those whom God’ s people do thus turn over to him to be punished. Because they have defiled the priesthood] Corruptio optimi pessima: as sweetest wine makes the sourest vinegar. A wicked priest is the worst creature upon earth. And the covenant, &c.]

(28) I chased him from me.—Eliashib himself was allied by marriage to Tobiah, and one of his grandsons was now brought into prominence as married to Sanballat. Him Nehemiah drove into exile.

Verse 28. One of the sons of Joiada] This was Manasseh, brother of Jaddua, son of Joiada, and grandson of Eliashib the high priest. I chased him from me.] Struck him off the list of the priests, and deemed him utterly unworthy of all connection and intercourse with truly religious people.

28. one of the sons of Joiada] We should gather that Eliashib the grandfather was still alive, since the emphasis lies on the relationship of the offender to the high-priest. ‘Joiada.’ Cf. Nehemiah 12:10. On Eliashib see note on Nehemiah 13:4. son in law to Sanballat the Horonite] For Sanballat, cf. Nehemiah 2:10, Nehemiah 3:33, Nehemiah 4:1, Nehemiah 6:1. The marriage of the high-priest’s grandson with Sanballat’s daughter was an offence in every way. (1) It showed treasonable alliance with Israel’s bitterest foe, (2) it violated the rule laid down in Ezra’s time against mixed marriages, (3) it compromised the purity of the high-priestly house (Leviticus 21:6 ff.). therefore I chased him from me] LXX. ἐξέβρασα. Obviously because he was contumacious, and refused to put away his wife. Rashi’s explanation that Nehemiah chased him away for fear of his playing the spy and reporting the means of entering and leaving the city, is strangely inadequate. Josephus relates a story so similar to this that it should probably be referred to the same events, although he must have obtained it from some other source. According to Josephus (Ant. xi. 7, 8) a certain Manasse, the brother of Jaddua and son of John or Johanan (and therefore grandson not son of Joiada) took to wife Nikaso, the daughter of the Cuthaean Sanballat. Refusing to put her away, he was expelled from Jerusalem by the Jewish nobles, and took refuge with the Samaritans, among whom, as a member of the high-priestly family, he set up upon Mt Gerizim a rival temple and priesthood. It will be seen that Josephus assigns this to the period of Alexander the Great. But there it is probable that Josephus is at fault; for he completely fails to realize the interval of time between the Return from the Exile and the Age of Alexander; and it is to this chronological confusion rather than to a mistake of ‘Jaddua’ for ‘Joiada’ that we should ascribe the cause of his principal variation from the Memoirs of Nehemiah. For (1) in Alexander’s time the organization of the Samaritan worship had long been fully established, (2) it is very improbable that a repetition of such a striking incident should occur just a century after Nehemiah’s time.

28. One of the sons of Joiada — Not Jonathan or Johanan, (Nehemiah 12:11; Nehemiah 12:22,) but a younger and less prominent member of the high priest’s family.