'Ammon' or 'Ammonites' (), also referred to in the
Bible as the "children of Ammon," were a people (also known from Assyrian and other records) living east of the
Jordan river whose origin the Old Testament traces to
Lot, the nephew of the patriarch
Abraham, as with the
Moabites. The Ammonites were regarded by Hebrews as close relatives of the
Israelites and
Edomites.
Territory
The ancient kingdom of Ammon was located in northwestern Arabia east of
Gilead[1] and the
Dead Sea.
[2] The borders of the Ammonite territory are not uniformly defined in the Old Testament. In
Judges 11:13, the claim of the king of Ammon, who demands of the Israelites the restoration of the land "from
Arnon even unto
Jabbok and unto
Jordan" is mentioned only as an unjust claim,
[3], since the Israelite part of this tract had been conquered from the
Amorite king
Sihon, who had, in turn, displaced the Moabites; in Judges 11:22 it is stated that the Israelites had possession "from the wilderness even unto Jordan", and that they laid claim to territory beyond this, so as to leave no room for Ammon. The
Book of Numbers 21:24 describes the Hebrew conquest
[4] as having reached "even unto the children of Ammon, for the border of the children of Ammon was
Jazer."
[5] Joshua 13:25, defines the frontier of the
tribe of Gad as being "Jazer ... and half the land of the children of Ammon." The latter statement can be reconciled with Num. 21:24 and
Deuteronomy 2:19, 37 by assuming that the northern part of Sihon's Amorite kingdom had formerly been Ammonite. This explains, in part, the claim mentioned above (Judges, 11:13). According to Deuteronomy 2:37, the region along the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country formed the border of Israel. On the authority of Deuteronomy 2:20, their territory had formerly been in the possession of a mysterious nation, the Zamzummim (also called Zuzim), and the war of
Chedorlaomer (Gen. 14:5) with this nation may be connected with the history of Ammon. When the Israelites invaded Canaan, they passed by the frontier of the Ammonites.
[6]
From their original territory, the Ammonites are supposed to have been expelled by
Sihon, king of the
Amorites. Sihon was said to have been found by the Israelites, after their deliverance from
Egypt, in possession of
Gilead, that is, the whole country on the left bank of the Jordan, to the north of the Arnon.
[7] By this invasion, the Ammonites were driven out of Gilead across the upper waters of the Jabbok, where it flows from south to north, which continued to be their western boundary.
[8] The other limits of the Ammonites, or country of the Ammonites
[9] were not exactly defined. On the south, it probably adjoined the land of Moab; on the north, it may have met that of the king of
Geshur[10]; and on the east it may have melted away into the desert peopled by
Kedarites and other nomadic tribes.
The chief city of the country was ''
Rabbah'' or ''Rabbath Ammon'' (the modern city of
Amman is now located at its site
[1],[12]), i.e. the metropolis of the Ammonites,
[13] called ''Rabbathammana'' by the later
Greeks.
[14] Ptolemy Philadelphus changed its name to ''Philadelphia'', and made it a large and strong city with an
acropolis, situated on both sides of a branch of the Jabbok, today known as Nahr `Amman, the river of Ammon -- whence the designation "city of waters"
[15] The city of
Amman, Jordan is located on roughly the same site. The country to the south and east of Amman is distinguished by its fertility; and ruined towns are scattered thickly over it, attesting that it was once occupied by a population that, however fierce, was settled and industrious; a fact indicated also by the tribute of grain paid annually to
Jotham.
[16]
==In the
Torah,
Joshua and
Judges==
Descent
According to the pedigree given in
Genesis 19:37-38, the Ammonites were closely related to the Israelites and still more closely to their neighbors in the south, the Moabites. This relationship is supported by the fact that all names of Ammonitish persons show a pure
Canaanite character. But the above passage indicates also the contempt and hatred for the Ammonites felt by the Hebrews.
[17] The Torah excludes the progeny of Ammonites from the assembly of the Lord.
[18]
Both the Ammonites and Moabites are sometimes spoken of under the common name of the children of Lot.
[19] Both tribes hired
Balaam to curse
Israel, which he instead blessed (Deut. 23:4). Also known as the ''Beni-ammi'',
[20] the Ammonites and the Israelites, throughout the Old Testament and recorded history, were antagonists.
Role in the Israelite Exodus
When the Israelites of the Exodus paused before their territory, the Ammonites prohibited them from passing through their lands. For this act, they were denied entry into "the congregation of the Lord" until ten generations had passed.
[21]
Sometimes a slight distinction only seems to be made between the Ammonites and their southern brothers, the Moabites. Deuteronomy 23:4, 5, for instance, states that the Ammonites and Moabites hired
Balaam to curse the Israelites, while in Numbers 22:3ff Moab alone is mentioned. Some authorities overcome this discrepancy by the help of the emended text of Numbers 22:5, according to which Balaam came "from the land of the children of Ammon." This is the reading of most ancient versions; the Septuagint, however, has it like the present Hebrew text: "the children of his people" ("ammo").
In the time of the Judges
In Judges, 3:13, the Ammonites appear as furnishing assistance to King
Eglon of Moab against Israel; but in Judges, 10:7-9, in which not only Gilead is oppressed but a victorious war is waged also west of the Jordan, Ammon alone is mentioned. The speech of Jephthah which follows, however, is clearly addressed to the Moabites as well, for he speaks of their god
Chemosh.
[22] Some scholars find that these varying statements conflict
[23]; others conclude that the brother-nations still formed a unit. The small nation of Ammon could face Israel only in alliance with other non-Israelites.
[24] The attack of King
Nahash upon the frontier city
Jabesh Gilead was easily repulsed by
Saul.
[25]
==During the Kingdoms of
Israel and
Judah==
Attacks by the Ammonites on Israelite communities east of the Jordan were the impetus behind the unification of the tribes under
Saul, who defeated them.
[26]
From Samuel II 10:2, it may be concluded that
Nahash assisted David out of hatred for Saul; but his son
Hanun provoked David by ill-treating his ambassadors, and brought about the defeat of the Ammonites, despite assistance from their northern neighbors in
Aram.
[27] Their capital Rabbah was captured,
[28] and numerous captives were taken from "all the cities of the children of Ammon."
In 2 Samuel 12:31, King David is described slaughtering Ammonites:
:''And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under
axes of iron, and made them pass through the
brick-
kiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon.''
David's treatment of the captives
[29] was not necessarily barbarous; the description may be interpreted to mean that he employed them as laborers in various public works. Some scholars claim that these passages recount symbolic gestures of submission common to the times rather than actual reports of massacres. The Chronicler, however, takes it in the most cruel sense.
[30] The Ammonites, themselves, had a reputation for exceeding cruelty in warfare.
[31] The new ruler was possibly
Shobi, possbily a brother of Hanun (both are called son of Nahash), evidently appointed by David, kept peace, his attitude being even friendly.
[32] There were Ammonite
mercenaries in David's army
[33] and Solomon's chief wife, the mother of his heir, was
Naamah, the Ammonitess (I Kings, xiv. 21; compare xi. 1), probably a daughter of Shobi. She became the mother of
Rehoboam.
[34]
After this, hostilities again broke out, under
Jehoshaphat,
[35] Jeroboam II[36], and under
Jotham, who subjected the Ammonites.
[37]
From the
Assyrian inscriptions, we learn that the Ammonite king
Ba'sa (Baasha) son of
Ruhubi, with 1000 men, joined
Ahab and the Syrian allies against
Shalmaneser III at the
Battle of Qarqar in
853 BC. They may at this time have been
vassals of
Bar-Hadad II, the Aramaean king of
Damascus. In
734 their king
Sanipu was a vassal of
Tiglath-Pileser III and his successor,
Pudu-ilu, held the same position under
Sennacherib and
Esarhaddon. An Assyrian
tribute-list from this period, showing that Ammon paid one-fifth of Judah's tribute, gives evidence of the scanty extent and resources of the country.
[38]
Somewhat later, their king
Amminadab I was among the tributaries who suffered in the course of the great Arabian campaign of
Assurbanipal. Other kings attested to in contemporary sources are
Barakel (attested to in several contemporary
seals and
Hissalel who reigned about 620 BCE (and who is mentioned on an inscription on a bottle found at
Tel Siran, Jordan along with his son, King Amminadab II, who reigned around 600 BCE.)
With the neighbouring tribes, the Ammonites under King
Baalis helped the
Babylonian monarch
Nebuchadrezzar against
Jehoiakim[39]; and if they joined
Zedekiah's conspiracy,
[40], and were threatened by the
Babylonian army,
[41] they do not appear to have suffered greatly.
Subsequent History
In the time of
Nebuchadnezzar, the Ammonites seem to have been fickle in their political attitude. They assisted the
Babylonian army against the Jews
[42]; encroached upon the territory of the
Gad; and occupied
Heshbon and
Jazer[43]; but the prophetic threatenings in Jeremiah 9:26, 25:21, 27:3, and
Ezra, 21:20, point to rebellion by them against Babylonian supremacy. They received
Jews fleeing before the Babylonians (Jeremiah 40:11), and their king,
Baalis, instigated the murder of
Gedaliah, the Babylonians' Jewish governor of Jerusalem and its environs.
[44]
At the time of the rebuilding of Jerusalem by Ezra and
Nehemiah, they were hostile to the Jews, and
Tobiah, an Ammonite (possibly the governor of Ammon), incited them to hinder the work (Neh. iii. 35). But inter-marriages between Jews and Ammonites were frequent.
[45]
Little mention is made of the Ammonites through the
Persian and early
Hellenistic periods. Their name appears, however, during the time of the
Maccabees. The Ammonites, with some of the neighbouring tribes, did their utmost to resist and check the revival of the Jewish power under
Judas Maccabaeus.
[46]
It is stated
[47] that the Ammonites under
Timotheus were defeated by Judas; but it is possible that, after the exile, the term Ammonite denoted all peoples living in the former country of Ammon and Gad.
Ezekiel 25:4-5 seems to mark the beginning of an immigration of tribes from the
Arabian desert.
[48]
The last notice of the Ammonites themselves is in
Justin Martyr, ''Dialogue with Trypho'' (§ 119), where it is affirmed that they were still a numerous people.
==
Language==
''Main Article:
Ammonite language''
The few Ammonite names that have been preserved (Nahash,
Hanun, and those mentioned above;
Zelek in 2 Samuel 23:37 is textually uncertain) testify, in harmony with other considerations, that their language was
Semitic, closely related to the
Hebrew language and the
Moabite language.
==
Religion==
Of the customs, religion, and social structure of the Ammonites, little is known. The frequent assumption that, living on the borders of the desert, they remained more pastoral than the Moabites and Israelites, is unfounded.
[49] The environs of Rabbah, at least, were fertile and were tilled. In regard to other cities than Rabbah, see
Judges, xi. 33; II Sam. xii. 31. Of their gods the name of only the chief deity,
Milcom[50]. In Jer. 49:1, 49:3, "Malcam" is to be translated by "Milcom" (the god) and not as in the Authorized Version, "their king." In the Bible Milcom is described as having been worshipped with
human sacrifice.
From the names of their kings, it seems logical that the
cult of the
Baalim probably coexisted in Ammon, as, possibly, that of
El. The name Tobiah suggests that
YHWH may have been worshipped in Ammon as well; possibly this was an import from the era of Israelite domination. Other inscriptions and names suggest the possibility that such gods as the
Edomite deity
Kaus had Ammonite cults.
Economy
Like its sister-kingdom of Moab, Ammon was the source of numerous natural resources, including
sandstone and
limestone. It had a productive agricultural sector and occupied a vital place along the
King's Highway, the ancient trade route connecting Egypt with
Mesopotamia,
Syria, and
Anatolia. As with the Edomites and Moabites, trade along this route gave them considerable revenue.
==In
Jewish law==
The Ammonites, still numerous in the south of
Palestine in the second Christian century according to Justin Martyr ("Dialogus cum Tryphone," chapter 119), presented a serious problem to the
Pharisees because many marriages with Ammonite and Moabite wives had taken place in the days of Nehemiah.
[51] Still later, it is not improbable that when Judas Maccabeus had inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Ammonites, Jewish warriors took Ammonite women as wives, and their sons, sword in hand, claimed recognition as Jews notwithstanding the law
[52] that "an Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord." Such a condition or a similar incident is reflected in the story told in the
Talmud[53] that in the days of King Saul the legitimacy of David's claim to royalty was disputed on account of his descent from Ruth, the Moabite; whereupon
Ithra, the Israelite
[54] girt with his sword, strode like an
Ishmaelite into the schoolhouse of
Jesse, declaring upon the authority of
Samuel, the prophet, and his
bet din (court of justice), that the law excluding the Ammonite and Moabite from the Jewish congregation referred only to the men—who alone had sinned in not meeting Israel with bread and water—and not to the women. The story reflects actual conditions in pre-Talmudic times, conditions that led to the fixed rule stated in the
Mishnah[55]: "Ammonite and Moabite men are excluded from the Jewish community for all time; their women are admissible."
Later it was held that the prohibition no longer applies in practice, as Sennacherib had so mixed up the races by his practice of deportation that the current residents of Ammon and Moab could not be identified with the Biblical peoples of those names.
The fact that
Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, was born of an Ammonite woman
[56] also made it difficult to maintain the
messianic claims of the
house of David; but it was adduced as an illustration of divine
Providence which selected the "two doves,"
Ruth, the Moabite, and Naamah, the Ammonite, for honorable distinction.
[57]
See also
★
Abel-cheramim
References
1. Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Ammon.†''Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary''. 9th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 1985. ISBN 0-87779-508-8, ISBN 0-87779-509-6 (indexed), and ISBN 0-87779-510-X (deluxe).
2. Guralnik, David B., Editor in Chief. “Ammon².†''Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language''. Second College Edition. New York, NY: Prentice Hall Press, 1986. ISBN 0-671-41809-2 (indexed), ISBN 0-671-41807-6 (plain edge), ISBN 0-671-41811-4 (pbk.), and ISBN 0-671-47035-3 (LeatherKraft).
3. Judges 11:15
4. compare Judges, 11:19
5. following the Greek Septuagint reading of the last word as "Jazer" instead of "'az," strong, (Authorized Version); compare Judges, 11:32.
6. Num. 21:24; Deuteronomy 2:19, 37; Josh. 13:25).
7. Numbers 21:13
8. Numbers 21:24; Deuteronomy 2:37 and 3:16
9. 'Lmmanitis chora' 2 Maccabees 4:26
10. Joshua 12:5
11. Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Ammon.†''Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary''. 9th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 1985. ISBN 0-87779-508-8, ISBN 0-87779-509-6 (indexed), and ISBN 0-87779-510-X (deluxe).
12. Guralnik, David B., Editor in Chief. “Amman.†''Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language''. Second College Edition. New York, NY: Prentice Hall Press, 1986. ISBN 0-671-41809-2 (indexed), ISBN 0-671-41807-6 (plain edge), ISBN 0-671-41811-4 (pbk.), and ISBN 0-671-47035-3 (LeatherKraft).
13. Deut. 3:11
14. Polybius v. 7. 4
15. 2 Samuel 12:27; see Survey of E. Pal (Pal. Explor. Fund), pp. 19ff.
16. 2 Chr. 27:5
17. Deuteronomy 23:4
18. but cf. Deuteronomy 2:19, 37, in which the consciousness of relationship seems to be at the root of the regard shown to Ammon.
19. Deuteronomy 2:19; Psalms 83:8
20. Genesis 19:38
21. Deuteronomy 23:3
22. Judges, 11:18-24
23. compare Deut. 23:3
24. compare II Chronicles 20 and Psalms 83:7
25. I Samuel 6, 14:47
26. 1 Samuel 11:11
27. ibid. 10:13
28. ''ibid.'' 7:29
29. ''ibid.'' 12:31
30. I Chron. 20:3
31. I Sam. 11:2; Amos, 1:13
32. II Sam. xvii. 27
33. ''ibid.'' 23, 27
34. 1 Kings 14:31; 2 Chronicles 12:13
35. II Chron. xx.
36. Amos, i. 13
37. II Chron. xxvii. 5
38. see Schrader, ''K.A.T.'' pp. 141 et seq.; Delitzsch, ''Paradies,'' p. 294; Winckler, ''Geschichte Israels,'' p. 215.
39. 2 Kings 24:2
40. Jeremiah 27:3
41. Ezekiel 21:20
42. II Kings, xxiv. 2
43. Jeremiah 49:1; ''cf.'' Zephaniah 2:8
44. ibid. 40:14, 41:15
45. Ezra, 9:1; I Esdras 8:69, and elsewhere.
46. 1 Maccabees 5:6; cf. Josephus ''Jewish Antiquities'' xii. 8. 1.
47. 1 Maccabees 5:6
48. ''cf.'' Neh. 2:19, 4:7, Josephus, "Ant." xiii. 9, § 1.
49. Ezek. 25:4, II Chron. 27:5
50. sometimes given as Moloch), as in I Kings, 11:5 (LXX. 7), 33; I Kings, 11:7; II Kings, 23:13
51. Neh. 13:23
52. Deut. xxiii. 4
53. Yebamot 76b, 77a; Ruth Rabba to ii. 5
54. II Sam. xvii. 25; compare I Chron. ii. 17
55. Yeb. viii. 3
56. I Kings, xiv. 21-31
57. Bava Kamma 38b.
External links
★
Muller, Max and Kaufman Kohler. "Ammon, Ammonites." ''
Jewish Encyclopedia.'' Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-1906.
★ Hertz J.H. (1936) The Pentateuch and Haftoras. Deuteronomy. Oxford University Press, London.
★
Ammon on Bruce Gordon's Regnal Chronologies (also at
[1])
★
Jordanian government site on ancient Trans-Jordanian kingdoms
★
Catholic Encyclopedia article
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