Bible Strands
Nehemiah 6:17
Also in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters kept coming to them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records events during the final stages of Jerusalem’s wall reconstruction, noting that Judah’s leadership was actively exchanging correspondence with Tobiah, an opposing official.
The words — מַרְבִּים (mar.bim) literally means “multiplying” or “many,” and אִגְּרֹתֵיהֶם ('ig.gro.tei.hem) translates to “their letters,” highlighting the quantity and continuous flow of the messages.
The thread — This pattern of compromised leadership appears in Nehemiah 3:5, where Tekoite nobles refused to participate in the rebuilding, and Nehemiah 13:28, which documents a high priest’s grandson marrying into Sanballat’s family.
Why it lands — The verse documents a factual breach in communal unity, requiring readers to see how sustained external communication and familial ties can systematically undermine a shared mission.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them.
Cross-references
- Nehemiah 3:5 Next to him, the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.
- Nehemiah 5:7 and after serious thought I rebuked the nobles and officials, saying, “You are exacting usury from your own brothers!” So I called a large assembly against them
- Nehemiah 13:28 Even one of the sons of Jehoiada son of Eliashib the high priest had become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I drove him away from me.
- Micah 7:1 Woe is me! For I am like one gathering summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave.
- Matthew 24:10 At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another,