Eliashib was the high priest in Jerusalem during Nehemiah's time and played an important role in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. He is also known for his controversial family connections with Tobiah the Ammonite and Sanballat the Horonite, which led to conflicts with Nehemiah.
1Then Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests set to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors in place, and they consecrated the wall as far as the Tower of the Hundred, all the way to the Tower of Hananel.
20Next to him Baruch son of Zabbai worked with zeal, repairing another section from the angle to the entrance of the house of Eliashib the high priest.
Eliashib had a close connection with Tobiah the Ammonite and even arranged a large room in the temple courts for him, which was a serious breach of the sanctuary's purity.
5had provided him with a large room where they had formerly stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, new wine, and oil prescribed for the Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers, along with the contributions for the priests.
9Then I gave orders, and they purified the rooms; and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.
Eliashib is mentioned in the genealogy of the high priests as the son of Joiakim and father of Joiada, placing him in the line of high priestly succession after the exile.
In the book of Nehemiah, the heads of families among the priests who served during Eliashib's time as high priest are mentioned, and their names were recorded in the chronicles.
22As for the Levites, in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua, the heads of the fathers' houses were recorded, as were the priests, down to the reign of Darius the Persian.