Sanballat

Sanballat the Horonite was a prominent opponent of Nehemiah's rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls, who together with Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab mocked, threatened, and conspired to obstruct the restoration project (Nehemiah 2:10, 19; 4:1–9; 6:1–14). He is identified in extrabiblical Elephantine papyri as the governor of Samaria, and his opposition reflects the political tensions between the restored Judean community and the surrounding provincial powers of the Persian period.