Hebrew word · H2772

חֹרֹנִי

hachoroni

Horonite

A label of origin (a gentilic): someone from a place called Ḥōrōn or similar.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament.

What it means

Someone descended from Horon(?), first mentioned at Neh.2.10

§ Horonite = "native of Horonaim"

1) an inhabitant of Horonaim in Moab

1a) the designation of Sanballat, the opponent of Nehemiah

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: A label of origin (a gentilic): someone from a place called Ḥōrōn or similar.
Against the English: All versions transliterate it as 'Horonite' without explanation, so the reader loses whatever the label implied.
Used elsewhere in the period: Beth-horon (Joshua 16:3, 5; 1 Kings 9:17) is an Ephraimite and Israelite town. Horonaim is a Moabite town (Isaiah 15:5; Jeremiah 48:3, 5, 34; Mesha Stele line 31–32). Some have also proposed Hauran.

Range of meaning: An adjective of origin: 'man of Ḥoron.' Possible places are Beth-horon (Upper and Lower), Horonaim in Moab, or, less likely, Harran in Mesopotamia.
Against the English: English versions all transliterate it as 'Horonite,' which tells a reader nothing. The point is that he is labelled by where he comes from and not by his office.
Used elsewhere in the period: The Elephantine papyri from Egypt (letter of 407 BC, Cowley 30 / TAD A4.7) mention 'Delaiah and Shelemiah, sons of Sanballat, governor of Samaria.' Both sons have names built on YHWH. The Wadi Daliyeh papyri of the 4th century BC show a family of governors of Samaria that later included another Sanballat.

Nehemiah · 3

Nehemiah 2:10 הַחֹרֹנִ֗י the Horonite

But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were deeply disturbed that someone had come to seek the well-being of the Israelites.

Here: A label of origin. It most likely means a man from Beth-horon, on the road just northwest of Jerusalem. Some take it as Horonaim in Moab. Nehemiah never calls him by his official title, and the label may be meant to mark him as an outsider.
Nehemiah 2:19 הַחֹרֹנִ֜י the Horonite

But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked us and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”

Here: Most likely 'man of Beth-horon,' the twin towns on the border between Samaria and Judah. The label may also carry a slight sneer, naming him by a small town rather than by his office.
Nehemiah 13:28 הַחֹרֹנִ֑י the Horonite

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.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.