For [there were] many in Judah sworn unto him, because he [was] the son in law of Shechaniah the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.
Ver. 18. For there were many in Judah sworn unto him] Besides that intercourse of letters aforementioned, Tobiah had his pensioners among the Jews, who were his sworn servants, and had taken oath, or (as the Hebrew hath it) they were lords of an oath to him. In the year 1583, Girald, earl of Desmond's, men had barbarously vowed to forswear God, before they would forsake him. I know not what these Jews had sworn to Tobiah (to be true to him likely, and to prosecute his designs), but those of them at this day living are great swearers (they were so in St James's time, Jam 5:12), but they keep no oath unless they swear upon their own Torah or book of the law, brought out of their synagogues (Weemse).
Because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah] One of those corrupt nobles, Nehemiah 6:17, and Meshullam was another, who also helped to build the wall, Nehemiah 3:4, and seemed forward, but now shows himself in his colours. Thou mayest be the lead horse in the team (saith one), a ring leader of good exercises, as Joash, 2 Chronicles 24:4,6. Thou mayest flock after zealous preachers, as those did after John Baptist, Matthew 3:5. Yea, stand out in persecution, and not shrink in the wetting, as the thorny ground did not; and yet be no better than a very painted hypocrite.