Ammon; Ammonites

By: W. Max Muller, Kaufmann Kohler

Derivation and Relationship.

—Biblical Data:

A nation in eastern Palestine. As to their origin from Lot, compare Gen. xix. 38, in which "Ben-ammi" (son of my paternal uncle; that is, of my nearest relative) is paro-nomasia, not etymology. It is possible that Ammon is derived from the name of a tribal divinity.

According to the pedigree given in Gen. xix. 37-38, the Ammonites were nearly related to the Israelites and still more closely to their neighbors in the south, the Moabites. This is fully confirmed by the fact that all names of Ammonitish persons show a pure Canaanitish character. But the above passage indicates also the contempt and hatred for the Ammonites felt by the Hebrews (Deut. xxiii. 4), even to the exclusion of their progeny from the assembly of the Lord (contrast Deut. ii. 19, 37, in which the consciousness of relationship seems to be at the root of the regard shown to Ammon).

The borders of the Ammonite territory are not clearly defined in the Bible. In Judges, xi. 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 (xi. 15), inasmuch as the Israelitish part of this tract had been conquered from the Amorites whom the Moabites had, in part, preceded; while in Judges, xi. 22 it is stated that the Israelites had possession "from the wilderness even unto Jordan," and that they laid a claim to territory beyond this, so as to leave no room for Ammon. Num. xxi. 24 describes the Hebrew conquest (compare Judges, xi. 19) as having reached "even unto the children of Ammon, for the border of the children of Ammon was Jazer" (read the last word, with Septuagint, as "Jazer," instead of "'az," strong, A. V.; compare Judges, xi. 32). Josh. xiii. 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. xxi. 24 (Deut. ii. 19, 37) only by assuming that the northern part of Sihon's Amorite kingdom had for merly been Ammonite. This explains, in part, the claim mentioned above (Judges, xi. 13). According to Deut. ii. 37, the region along the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill-country formed the border-line of Israel.

In Judges, xi. 33, a portion of the land of Ammon is mentioned. It extended from Aroer to Minnith, including twenty cities, and must have been anextremely narrow strip of land, comprising only the northeastern quarter of the region called, at present, El-Belka. According to the Moabite stone, the southeastern quarter, attributed by many scholars to Ammon, could not have belonged to it; and nothing is known concerning an extension north of the Jabbok river. The village of the Ammonites (or according to the Ḳeri, Ammonitess), Josh. xviii. 24, in Benjamin, does not point to former possessions west of Jordan. On the authority of Deut. ii. 20, their territory had formerly been in the possession of a mysterious nation, the Zamzummim (also called Zuzim), and the war of Chedorlaomer (Gen. xiv. 5) with these may be connected with the history of Ammon. When the Israelites invaded Canaan, they passed by the frontier of the Ammonites (Num. xxi. 24; Deut. ii. 19, 37; Josh. xiii. 25).

Ammonites and Moabites.

Sometimes a slight distinction only seems to be made between the Ammonites and their southern brothers, the Moabites. Deut. xxiii. 4, 5, for instance, states that the Ammonites and Moabites hired Balaam to curse the Israelites, while in Num. xxii. 3 et seq. Moab alone is mentioned. Some authorities overcome this discrepancy by the help of the emended text of Num. xxii. 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") (see Balaam). In Judges, iii. 13, the Ammonites appear as furnishing assistance to Eglon of Moab against Israel; but in Judges, x. 7, 8, 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 (Judges, xi. 18-24). Some scholars find that these varying statements conflict (compare Deut. xxiii. 3); 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 (compare II Chron. xx. and Ps. lxxxiii. 7). The attack of King Nahash upon the frontier city Jabesh in Gilead was easily repulsed by Saul (I Sam. xi., xiv. 47).

Ammonite Warriors in David's Army.

From II Sam. x. 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 neighbor (ibid. x. 13). Their capital Rabbah was captured (ibid. xii. 29), and numerous captives were taken from "all the cities of the children of Ammon." David's treatment of the captives (ibid. xii. 31) was not necessarily barbarous; the description may be interpreted to mean that he employed them as laborers in various public works. The Chronicler, however, takes it in the most cruel sense (I Chron. xx. 3). Yet David could not have exceeded the savagery customary in ancient Oriental warfare; the Ammonites, themselves, for instance, were exceedingly cruel (I Sam. xi. 2; Amos, i. 13). The new king, Shobi, a brother of Hanun, evidently appointed by David, kept peace, his attitude being even friendly (II Sam. xvii. 27). There were Ammonite warriors in David's army (ibid. 23, 27) 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. After this, hostilities again broke out, under Jehoshaphat (II Chron. xx.), under Jeroboam II. (Amos, i. 13) and under Jotham, who subjected the Ammonites (II Chron. xxvii. 5).

According to the Assyrian inscriptions under Baasha (Hebrew, Ba'sha), the son of Rukhubi (Rehob), they had to send auxiliaries to the powerful king Birhidri (Benhadad) of Damascus to aid him in his war against Shalmaneser II. The following kings paid tribute to the Assyrians: Sanipu (or "Sanibu" of Bit-Ammanu; "bit," house, has either the sense of "reign" or "kingdom," or is added after the analogy of "Bit-kḦumri"—house of Omri—for Israel, etc.) to Tiglath-pileser III.; Puduilu to Sennacherib and Assarhaddon; Ammi-nadbi to Assurbanipal. An Assyrian tribute-list, showing that Ammon paid one-fifth of Judah's tribute, gives evidence of the scanty extent and resources of the country (see Schrader, "K.A.T." pp. 141 et seq.; Delitzsch, "Paradies," p. 294; Winckler, "Geschichte Israels," p. 215).

In the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the Ammonites seem to have been fickle in their political attitude. They assisted the Babylonian army against the Jews (II Kings, xxiv. 2); encroached upon the territory of Gad; and occupied Heshbon and Jazer (Jer. xlix. 1; I Macc. v. 6-8; compare Zeph. ii. 8); but the prophetic threatenings in Jer. ix. 26, xxv. 21, xxvii. 3, and Ezra, xxi. 20, point to rebellion by them against Babylonian supremacy. They received Jews fleeing before the Babylonians (Jer. xl. 11), and their king, Baalis, instigated the murder of Gedaliah, the first Babylonian governor (ibid. xl. 14, xli. 15). At the time of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, they were hostile to the Jews, and Tobiah, an Ammonite, incited them to hinder the work (Neh. iii. 35). But inter-marriages between Jews and Ammonites were frequent (Ezra, ix. 1; I Esd. viii. 69, and elsewhere). It is stated (I Macc. v. 6) that the Ammonites under Timotheus were defeated by Judas; but it is probable that, after the exile, the term Ammonite denoted all Arabs living in the former country of Ammon and Gad. Ezek. xxv. 4-5 seems to mark the beginning of an Arab immigration, which is testified to by Neh. ii. 19, iv. 7, and is described by Josephus as completed ("Ant." xiii. 9, § 1).

Milcom Their Chief Deity.

Of the customs, religion, and constitution 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 (Ezek. xxv. 4, II Chron. xxvii. 5); the environs of Rabba (later Philadelphia), at least, were fertile and were tilled. In regard to other cities than Rabba, see Judges, xi. 33; II Sam. xii. 31. Of their gods the name of only the chief deity, Milcom—evidently a form of Moloch—is known (I Kings, xi. 5 [LXX. 7], 33; I Kings, xi. 7; II Kings, xxiii. 13). In Jer. xlix. 1, 3, "Malcam" is to be translated by "Milcom" (the god) and not as in A. V., "their king."

Ammonites and Jews Intermarry. —In Rabbinical Literature:

The Ammonites, still numerous in the south of Palestine in the second Christian century according to Justin Martyr ("Dialogus cum Tryphone," ch. cxix.), presented a serious problem to the Pharisaic scribes because of the fact that many marriages with Ammonite and Moabite wives had taken place in the days of Nehemiah (Neh. xiii. 23). 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 (Deut. xxiii. 4) 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 (Yeb. 76b, 77a; Ruth R. to ii. 5) that in the days of King Saulthe legitimacy of David's claim to royalty was disputed on account of his descent from Ruth, the Moabite; whereupon Ithra, the Israelite (II Sam. xvii. 25; compare I Chron. ii. 17), 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 (Yeb. viii. 3): "Ammonite and Moabite men are excluded from the Jewish community for all time; their women are admissible."

The fact that Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, was born of an Ammonite woman (I Kings, xiv. 21-31) 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 Ammonitess, for honorable distinction (B. Ḳ. 38b).

AMMON, AMMONITES.—A people inhabiting the territory between the tribe of Gad and the Arabian desert, from the Israelitish conquest of Palestine to the 4th cent. b.c., and perhaps till the 1st cent. a.d.

In Gen 19:38 the Ammonites are said to have descended from a certain Ben-Ammi, but in the Assyrian inscriptions Shalmaneser II., Tiglath-pileser III., and Sennacherib call them Beth-Ammon, placing the determinative for ‘man’ before Ammon. Except in Psa 83:7, which is late, the people are never called ‘Ammon’ in the Hebrew OT, but the ‘children of Ammon,’ or ‘Ammonites.’

The really important feature of the story of Gen 19:1-38 is that it reveals a consciousness that the Israelites regarded the Ammonites as their kindred. The proper names of individual Ammonites, so far as they are known to us, confirm this view. Probably, therefore, the Ammonites formed a part of that wave of Aramæan migration which brought the Hebrews into Palestine. Perhaps, like the Hebrews, they adopted the language of the people in whose land they settled, thus later speaking a Canaanite dialect. The genealogy which traces their descent from Lot probably signifies that they settled in the land of Lot, or Lotan, called by the Egyptians Ruten, which lay to the east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan.

In Deu 2:20 the Ammonites are said to have displaced the Zamzummim, a semi-mythical people, of whom we know nothing. Jdg 11:12-29 represents Ammon as having conquered all the land between the Jabbok and the Arnon, and a king of Ammon is said to have reproved Israel for taking it from them. The statement is late, and of doubtful authority. Israel found the Amorites in this territory at the time of the conquest, and we have no good reason to suppose that the Ammonites ever possessed it. Their habitat was in the north-eastern portion of this region, around the sources of the Jabbok. Rabbah (modern ‘Amman) was its capital and centre.

At the time of the conquest the Gadite Israelites did not disturb the Ammonites (Num 21:24, Deu 2:37), or attempt to conquer their territory. During the period of the Judges the Ammonites assisted Eglon of Moab in his invasion of Israel (Jdg 3:13), and attempted to conquer Gilead, but were driven back by Jephthah the judge (Jdg 11:4-9; Jdg 11:30-36, Jdg 12:1-3). Later, Nahash, their king, oppressed the town of Jabesh in Gilead, and it was the victory which delivered this city from the Ammonites that made Saul Israel’s king (1Sa 11:1-15). Saul and Nahash thus became enemies. Consequently, later, Nahash befriended David, apparently to weaken the growing power of Israel. When David succeeded Saul in power, Hanun, the son of Nahash, provoked him to war, with the result that Rabbah, the Ammonite capital, was stormed and taken, the Ammonites were reduced to vassalage, and terrible vengeance was wreaked upon them (2Sa 10:1-19; 2Sa 11:1-27; 2Sa 12:1-31). Afterwards, during Absalom’s rebellion, a son of Nahash rendered David assistance at Mahanaim (2Sa 17:27). Zelek, an Ammonite, was among David’s heroes (2Sa 23:37). These friendly relations continued through the reign of Solomon, who took as one of his wives the Ammonite princess Naamah, who became the mother of Rehoboam, the next king (1Ki 11:1; 1Ki 14:21; 1Ki 14:31). After the reign of Solomon the Ammonites appear to have gained their independence.

In the reign of Ahab, Ba’sa, son of Rehob, the Ammonite, was a member of the confederacy which opposed the progress of Shalmaneser into the West (cf. KAT [Note: Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament.] ³ 42). According to 2Ch 20:1, the Ammonites joined with Moab and Edom in invading Judah in the reign of Jehoshaphat. Before the reign of Jeroboam II. the Ammonites had made another attempt to get possession of Gilead, and their barbarities in warfare excited the indignation of the prophet Amos (Amo 1:13-15), Chronicles represents them as beaten a little later by Jotham of Judah, and as paying tribute to Uzziah (2Ch 26:8; 2Ch 27:5). When next we hear of the Ammonites, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is employing them to harass the refractory Judæan king Jehoiakim (2Ki 24:2). Perhaps it was at this period that the Ammonites occupied the territory of Gad (Jer 49:1 ff.). Later, the domination of the Babylonian compelled Ammon and Israel to become friends, for Ammon conspired with King Zedekiah against Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 27:3), and during the sieges of Jerusalem many Judæans had migrated to Ammon (Jer 40:11). The Babylonian king regarded both Ammon and Judah as rebels, for Ezekiel represents him as casting lots to see whether he should first attack Rabbah or Jerusalem (Eze 21:20 ff., cf. Zep 2:8-9).

Perhaps there was a settlement of Ammonites in Israelitish territory, for Deu 23:3 ff. recognizes the danger of mixture with Ammonites, while Jos 18:24 seems to indicate that there was in post-exilic times a village in Benjamin called ‘the village of the Ammonites.’

After the destruction of Jerusalem, Baalis, king of Ammon, sent a man to assassinate Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had made governor of Judah (Jer 40:14). Again, 140 years later, the Ammonites did everything in their power to prevent the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah (Neh 2:10; Neh 2:19; Neh 4:3; Neh 4:7). Nehemiah and Ezra fomented this enmity by making illegal the marriages of Ammonitish women with Israelitish peasantry who had remained in Judah (Neh 13:23).

Between the time of Nehemiah and Alexander the Great the country east of the Jordan was overrun by the Nabatæans. Perhaps the Ammonites lost their identity at this time: for, though their name appears later, many scholars think it is used of these Arabs. Thus in 1Ma 5:6 ff. Judas Maccabæus is said to have defeated the Ammonites; Psa 83:7 reckons them among Israel’s enemies; while Justin Martyr (Dial. Tryph. 19) says the Ammonites were numerous in his day. As Josephus (Ant. I. xi. 5) uses the same language of the Moabites and Ammonites, though elsewhere (XIV. i. 4) he seems to call them Arabians, it is possible that the Ammonites had lost their identity at the time of the Nabatæan invasion. Their capital, Rabbah, was rebuilt in the Greek style by Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt in the 3rd cent. b.c. and named Philadelphia. Its ruins amid the modern town of ‘Amman are impressive. The god of the Ammonites is called in the OT Milcom, a variation of Melek, ‘king.’ When the Jews, just before the Exile, to avert national disaster, performed child-sacrifice to Jawheh as Melek or ‘king,’ the prophets stamped this ritual as of foreign or Ammonite origin on account of the similarity of the name, though perhaps it was introduced from Phœnicia (cf. G. F. Judgesin Encyc. Bibl. iii. 3188 ff.). The Ammonites appear to have been a ruthless, semi-savage people. Such a rite may have been practised by them too; if so, it is all that we know of their civilization.

George A. Barton.

am´on, am´on-ı̄ts (עמּון, ‛ammōn; עמּונים, ‛ammōnı̄m): The Hebrew tradition makes this tribe descendants of Lot and hence related to the Israelites (Gen 19:38). This is reflected in the name usually employed in Old Testament to designate them, נ, Ben ‛Ammı̄,, B^enē ‛Ammōn, “son of my people,” “children of my people,” i.e. relatives. Hence we find that the Israelites are commanded to avoid conflict with them on their march to the Promised Land (Deu 2:19). Their dwelling-place was on the east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan, between the Arnon and the Jabbok, but, before the advance of the Hebrews, they had been dispossessed of a portion of their land by the Amorites, who founded, along the east side of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, the kingdom of Sihon (Num 21:21-31). We know from the records of Egypt, especially Tell el-Amarna Letters, the approximate date of the Amorite invasion (14th and 13th centuries, bc). They were pressed on the north by the Hittites who forced them upon the tribes of the south, and some of them settled east of the Jordan. Thus, Israel helped Ammonites by destroying their old enemies, and this makes their conduct at a later period the more reprehensible. In the days of Jephthah they oppressed the Israelites east of the Jordan, claiming that the latter had deprived them of their territory when they came from Egypt, whereas it was the possessions of the Amorites they took (Jdg 11:1-28). They were defeated, but their hostility did not cease, and their conduct toward the Israelites was particularly shameful, as in the days of Saul (1Sa 11:1-15) and of David (2 Sam 10). This may account for the cruel treatment meted out to them in the war that followed (2Sa 12:26-31). They seem to have been completely subdued by David and their capital was taken, and we find a better spirit manifested afterward, for Nahash of Rabbah showed kindness to him when a fugitive (2Sa 17:27-29). Their country came into the possession of Jeroboam, on the division of the kingdom, and when the Syrians of Damascus deprived the kingdom of Israel of their possessions east of the Jordan, the Ammonites became subjects of Benhadad, and we find a contingent of 1,000 of them serving as allies of that king in the great battle of the Syrians with the Assyrians at Qarqar (854 bc) in the reign of Shalmaneser II. They may have regained their old territory when Tiglath-pileser carried off the Israelites East of the Jordan into captivity (2Ki 15:29; 1Ch 5:26). Their hostility to both kingdoms, Judah and Israel, was often manifested. In the days of Jehoshaphat they joined with the Moabites in an attack upon him, but met with disaster (2 Ch 20). They paid tribute to Jotham (2Ch 27:5). After submitting to Tiglath-pileser they were generally tributary to Assyria, but we have mention of their joining In the general uprising that took place under Sennacherib; but they submitted and we find them tributary in the reign of Esarhaddon. Their hostility to Judah is shown in their joining the Chaldeans to destroy it (2Ki 24:2). Their cruelty is denounced by the prophet Amos (Amo 1:13), and their destruction by Jer (Jer 49:1-6), Ezek (Eze 21:28-32), Zeph (Zep 2:8, Zep 2:9). Their murder of Gedaliah (2Ki 25:22-26; Jer 40:14) was a dastardly act. Tobiah the Ammonites united with Sanballat to oppose Neh (Neh 4), and their opposition to the Jews did not cease with the establishment of the latter in Judea.

They joined the Syrians in their wars with the Maccabees and were defeated by Judas (1 Mac Amo 5:6).

Their religion was a degrading and cruel superstition. Their chief god was Molech, or Moloch, to whom they offered human sacrifices (1Ki 11:7) against which Israel was especially warned (Lev 20:2-5). This worship was common to other tribes for we find it mentioned among the Phoenicians.