And before this, Eliashib the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah:
Before this. The practice of these mixed marriages, in open neglect or violation of the law had become so common, that even the pontifical house, which ought to have set a better example, was polluted by such an impure mixture.
Eliashib the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of ... our God - the particular chamber or cell at the Eliashib the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of ... our God - the particular chamber or cell at the gates, where all things pertaining to the temple service were kept.
Was allied unto Tobiah. This person was the high priest (Nehemiah 12:28; also Nehemiah 3:1), who, by virtue of his dignified office, had the superintendence and control of the apartments attached to the temple. The laxity of his principles, as well as of his practice, is sufficiently apparent from his contracting a family connection with so notorious an enemy of Israel as Tobiah. But his obsequious attentions had carried him much further; because, to accommodate so important a person as Tobiah on his occasional visits to Jerusalem, Eliashib had provided him a splendid apartment in the temple. The introduction of so gross an impropriety can be accounted for in no other way than by supposing that, in the absence of the priests and the cessation of the services, the temple was regarded as a common public building, which might in the circumstances, be appropriated as a palatial residence.