Tobey, Zalmon, a Baptist minister, was born in Norfolk, Conn., July 27, 1791. His parents were Con- gregationalists. He pursued his collegiate studies for a time at Williams College, and then became a mem- ber of Brown University, where he graduated in the class of 1817. In the fall of this year, he was ordained to the work of the ministr\' in Canaan, Conn., and in the following spring became pastor of the Baptist Church at Fruit Hill, Providence, P. I., where he remained five years (1818-23). He became pastor of the Fourth Bap- tist Church, Providence, Sept. 2, 1823, where he contin- ued for about ten years (1828-33). During this period he fraternized chiefly with the Freewill Baptists, the Church of which he was pastor largely sympathizing with him. After being disconnected with the regular Baptists for several years, he returned to that body. His subsequent pastorates were in Bristol, K. I., for three years; Colebrook, Conn., for five years; and Pawtuxet, K. I., for seven years. In the spring of 1851 he removed to Warren, R. I. He preached as occasion offered in and around Warren for several years. He died in Norfolk. Coini., where he was visiting his relatives, Sept. 17, 1858. See Rev. Dr. H. Jackson, Funeral Sei-mon. (J. C. S.)
Tobi'ah (Heb. Tobiyuh', n^arj [once nflnt3,Neh. ii, X^"], goodness of Jehovah ; Sept. Twiitac v. r. Tujfitia ; Vidg. Tobia, Tobias), the name of two men. See also Tobias ; Tobijaii.
1. A person whose "children" were a family that re- turned with Zwubbabel, but were unable to prove their connection with Israel (Ezra ii, 60 ; Neh. vii, 62). B.C. ante 536.
TOBIAII
444
TOBIT
2. A base-born ally of the Samaritans who played a conspicuous part in the rancorous opposition made by Sanballat the Moabite and his adherents to tlie rebuild- in<j (if .leriisalem nmlcr Nehemiah, B.C. 44(j. With an artcctation of scorn, after the manner of Remus in the IJoman lejieud, they looked on the constructions of the now hopeful and thriving Jews, and contemptuously said, "Even if a fox t;o up, he will break down their stone wall" (Neh. iv, 3). The two races of Moab and Ammon found in these men fit representatives of that lierediiary hatred to the Israelites wlfu'h began before the entrance into Canaan, and was not extinct when the Hebrews had ceased to exist as a nation. The hor- rible story of the origin of the Moabites and Ammon- ites, as it was told by the Hebrews, is an index of the feeling of repul.siiin which must have existed between these hostile families of men. In the dignified rebuke of Nehemiah it received its highest expression: "Ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem" (ii, 20). But Tobiah, though a slave (ver. 10, 19), un- less this be a title of opprobrium, and an Ammonite, found means to ally himself with a priestly family, and his sou Johauan married the daughter of jVIeshullam the son of Berechiah (vi, 18). He himself was the son- in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arab (ver. 17), and these family relations created for him a strong faction among the Jews, and may have had something to do with the stern measures which Ezra found it necessary to take to repress the intermarriages with foreigners. Even a grandson of the high-priest Eliashib had mar- ried a daughter of Sanballat (xiii, 28). In xiii, 4 Elia- shib is said to have been allied to Tobiah, which would imply a relationship of some kind lietween Tobiah and Sanballat, though its nature is not mentioned. The evil had spread so far that the leaders of the people were compelled to rouse their religious antipathies by reading from the law of Jloses the strong prohibition that tiie Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever (ver. 1). Ewald {Ge.ich. iv, 173) conjectures that Tobiah had been a page ("slave") at the Persian court, and, being in favor there, had been promoted to be satrap of the Ammonites. But it almost seems that against Tobiah there was a stronger feeling of animosity than against Sanballat, and that this animosity found expression in the epithet " the slave," which is attached to his name. It was Tobiah who gave venom to the pitying scorn of Sanballat (Neh. iv, o ), and provoked the bitter cry of Nehemiah (ver. 4, 5); it was Tobiah who kept up comnuniications with the factious Jews, and who sent letters to put their leader in fear (vi, 17, 1!)); but his crowning act of in- sult was to take up his residence in the Temple in the chamber which Eliashib had prepared for him in defi- ance of the Mosaic statute. Nehemiah's patience could no longer contain itself, " therefore," he sa^'s, " I cast forth all the household stuff of Tol)iali out of the cham- ber," and with this summary act Tobiah disappears from history (xiii, 7, 8).— Smith. See Nkhemiaii.
Tobiah, bkn-Ei,ikzkr, a Jewish writer, who flour- islied at JIayence, A.D. 1107, is the author of a com- mentary on the Pentateuch and the live Megilloth, i. e, the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. This commentary, the proper title of which is Lekiich Tub (Z^'J np3) — in allusion to his name, as is evident from the ipiotations made by Aben - Ezra and Rashbam — but which is erroneously called Nrpos or Sn-OIT XnpOS, consists both of excerpts from the ancient expository works, such as Sip/ini, Siphre, Tan- chuma, etc., and of an attempt at a grammatical expla- nation of the text. A portion of it, embracing the com- mentaries on Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, was first published at Venice in 1546. With a Latin iranslation it was republished in IJgolino's Thesaurus AtUiquitatuni Sacrarum (ibid. 1 7t)4-ti9 ), vol. xv, xvi. Excerpts of the commentaries on the live ^legilloth were