Ammonites
AMMONITES
The descendants of Ammon, or Ben-Ammi, a son of Lot. They destroyed an ancient race of giants called Zamzummim, and seized their country, which lay east of Judea, Deu 2:19-21 . Their territory extended from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and from the Jordan a considerable distance into Arabia. Their capital city was Rabbah, (also called Rabbath Ammon, and afterwards Philadelphia,) which stood on the Jabbok. Yet in the time of Moses they had been driven out of this region, towards the east, by the Amorites, Num 21:21-35 32:33. Moses was forbidden to assail them, Deu 2:19 . They were gross idolaters; their chief idol being Moloch, supposed to be the same with Saturn, 1Ki 11:5-7 2Ki 23:13 . They oppressed Israel in the time of Jephthah, and were defeated by him with great slaughter, Jdg 11:1-40 . The children of Ammon afterwards, at various times, troubled the Israelites, for which the prophets threatened them with divine judgments, Jer 46:1-6 Eze 25:2-10 .
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Ammonites
A tribe racially allied to the Hebrews, settled east of the Jordan. They practised the idolatries and abominations common to Semitic races, and their god was called Milcom, another form of Moloch. They were held in special loathing by the Hebrews, and, when converted to Hebraism, were barred from the Tabernacle together with their children, even after the tenth generation. In the time of Judas Machabeus, they were still a strong people, whom he subdued with difficulty.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Ammonites
ORIGIN AND RACE
The Ammonites were a race very closely allied to the Hebrews. One use of their name itself in the Bible indicates the ancient Hebrew belief of this near relationship, for they are called Bén`ámmî or “Son of my people”, meaning that that race is regarded as descended from Israel’s nearest relative. This play of words on the name Ammon did not arise from the name itself, but presupposes the belief in the kinship of Israel and Ammon. The name Ammon itself cannot be accepted as proof of this belief, for it is obscure in origin, derived perhaps from the name of a tribal deity. A strong proof of their common origin is found in the Ammonite language. No Ammonite inscription, it is true, has come down to us, but the Ammonite names that have been preserved belong to a dialect very nearly akin to the Hebrew; moreover, the close blood relationship of Moab and Ammon being admitted by all, the language of the Moabite Stone, almost Hebrew in form, is a strong witness to the racial affinity of Israel and Ammon. This linguistic argument vindicates the belief that Israel always entertained of his kinship with the Ammonites. The belief itself has found expression in an unmistakable manner in Gen. xix, where the origin of Ammon and his brother, Moab, is ascribed to Lot, the nephew of Abraham. This revolting narrative has usually been considered to give literal fact, but of late years it has been interpreted, e.g. by Father Lagrange, O.P., as recording a gross popular irony by which the Israelites expressed their loathing of the corrupt morals of the Moabites and Ammonites. It may be doubted, however, that such an irony would be directed against Lot himself. Other scholars see in the very depravity of these peoples a proof of the reality of the Biblical story of their incestuous origin. Ethnologists, interpreting the origin from the nephew of Abraham by the canons usually found true in their science, hold it as indicating that the Israelites are considered the older and more powerful tribe, while the Ammonites and Moabites are regarded as offshoots of the parent stem. The character of Genesis, which at times seems to preserve popular traditions rather than exact ethnology, is taken as a confirmation of this position. But it is not denied, at any rate, that the Hebrew tradition of the near kinship of Israel, Ammon, and Moab is correct. All three, forming together a single group, are classified as belonging to the Aramæan branch of the Semitic race.
THEIR COUNTRY AND CIVILIZATION
The Ammonites were settled to the east of the Jordan, their territory originally comprising all from the Jordan to the wilderness, and from the River Jabbok south to the River Arnon (Judges 11:13-22) which later fell to the lot of Reuben and Gad. “It was accounted a land of giants; and giants formerly dwelt in it, whom the Ammonites called Zomzommims” (Deuteronomy 2:20), of whom was Og, King of Basan, who perished before the children of Israel in the days of Moses (iii). The Ammonites were, however, a short time before the invasion of the Hebrews under Josue, driven away by the Amorites from the rich lands near the Jordan and retreated to the mountains and valleys which form the eastern part of the district now known as ElBelka. They still continued to regard their original territory as rightfully theirs, and in later times regained it and held it for a considerable period. Their land, in general, while not very fertile, was well watered and excellent for pasture. Jeremiah speaks of Ammon glorying in her valleys and trusting in her treasures (Jeremiah 49). Her chief city, Rabbath, or RabbathAmmon, to distinguish it from a city of the same name in Moab, lay in the midst of a fertile and well tilled valley. It was the royal city; in the time of David it was flourishing under a wealthy king and was well fortified, though it succumbed before the attack of Joab, his general (2 Samuel 11-12). Later rebuilt by Ptolemy II (Philadelphus) and called after him Philadelphia, it still retains something of its original name, being knows at present to the Arabs as Ammân. Its ruins today are among the most imposing beyond the Jordan, and are said, despite the many vicissitudes of the city, to lend light and vividness to the already vivid narrative of Joab’s assault. The Ammonites had many other cities besides Rabbath (see Judith 11:33, and 2 Samuel 12:31), but their names have perished. They indicate, at least, a considerable degree of civilization and show that the Ammonites should not be placed, as is sometimes done, almost on the plane of nomads. In religion they practised the idolatries and abominations common to the Semitic races surrounding Israel; their god was called Milcom, supposed to be another form of Moloch. They seem with the Moabites to have been held in special loathing by the Hebrews. No man of either race, even when converted to the religion of Jehovah, was allowed to enter the Tabernacle; nor his children even after the tenth generation (Deuteronomy 23).
AMMON AND ISRAEL
This distinction against his nearest relatives was due to the treatment accorded by them to Israel during the march to Palestine, when Israel was struggling towards nationhood. The Hebrews had no intention of taking the land of the children of Lot, either of Moab or of Ammon and were expressly warned against it; this special friendliness and recognition of consanguinity obtained no return from either, who refused provisions to the Israelites and hired Balaam, who was an Ammonite, or at least dwelt among the Ammonites, to curse the host of Israel; though, as is well known, Balaam was forced to deliver instead a blessing (Deuteronomy 23:4, 5; Numbers 22-24). For this lack of brotherly spirit, the ban was put upon the Ammonites; but no attempt was made to seize their land, the Israelites turning aside when they reached the border of the Ammonites. The stretch of land along the Jordan, however, to which they laid claim, was taken from the Amorites who had dispossessed them. Half the land of Ammon, too, is said to have been assigned by Moses to the tribe of Gad (Jos. xiii, 25); but there is no record of its alienation from the Ammonites, which moreover would be in contradiction with the divine command already mentioned. It appears to have been territory from which they were already driven. Shortly after the death of Josue, when the Israelites were established beyond the Jordan, the Ammonites allied themselves with the Moabites under King Eglon in a successful attack upon Israel; but the Moabites were in turn defeated and a long peace set in (Jud. iii, 30). Later, after the judgeship of Jair, the Hebrews were simultaneously attacked by the Philistines from the southwest and the Ammonites from the east. Gad especially, whose dwelling was east of the Jordan, suffered from the incursions of the Ammonites which continued eighteen years; but the victorious enemy pushed beyond the Jordan and laid waste the country of Juda, Benjamin, and Ephraim (Judges 10). At this crisis, Israel was in terror; but a deliverer was raised up in the person of Jephte, who was chosen leader. The Ammonites demanded the cession of the territory beyond the Jordan from the Arnon to the Jabbok, of which they had been dispossessed; but Jephte refused since the Israelites had, three hundred years previously, taken the land from the Amorites and not from the Ammonites; he boldly carried the war into the invaders’ country, and completely defeated them, taking as many as twenty cities (Judges 11:33). By the time of Saul, the Ammonites had again grown to great power and under their King Naas (Nahash) had laid siege to Jabes Galaad. Saul had been chosen king by Samuel only one month before and his election was not yet ratified by the people; but as soon as he heard of the siege, he summoned a large army and defeated the Ammonites, inflicting heavy loss (1 Samuel 11). This victory established him in the monarchy. Further operations by Saul against the Ammonites are mentioned without detail (xiv, 47), as likewise the kindness of Naas to David (2 Samuel 10:2), probably before his accession. David signalized the beginning of his reign by military exploits and is said to have dedicated to the Lord the spoils of Ammon (viii, 11); however, there is no mention of a war, which seems inconsistent with the friendliness of David to Hanon, the successor of Naas (x, 2). David’s proffer of friendship to Ammon was suspected and rejected and his ambassadors maltreated. War ensued. The Ammonites were joined by the Syrians, and both were attacked and routed by Joab, David’s leading general. The next year Joab again invaded the territory of the Ammonites and, pursuing them as far as Rabbath, laid siege to the royal city. It was during this siege that the incident of David and Bethsabee happened, which resulted in David sending the faithful Urias to his death at Rabbath and incurring the deepest stain upon his character. When Joab had reduced the city to the point of surrender, he sent for David who came and reaped the glory of it, transferred the king’s massive crown to his own head, sacked the city and slaughtered its inhabitants; and did likewise to all the cities of the Ammonites (x-xii). The power of the Ammonites was now broken, Ammon apparently becoming a vassal of Israel; later, towards the end of David’s reign, another son of King Naas, either through lack of spirit or genuine humanity, heaped kindness upon David, when the distressed old king was at war with his son Absalom (xvii). Some of the Ammonites seem to have enrolled themselves in David’s service; one is mentioned among his thirtyseven most valiant warriors (xxiii, 37). No hostilities are narrated during the reign of Solomon; he chose Ammonite women as his wives, worshipped their god and built a highplace in his honour (1 Kings 11), which Josias destroyed (IV K., xxiii, 13). When Solomon died and his kingdom was divided, the Ammonites regained their independence and allied themselves with the Assyrians, joining with them in an attack on Gilead by which their territory was increased. Their barbarous cruelty on this occasion called forth the denunciation of Amos, who foretold the destruction of Rabbath (Amos 1:13). During the Assyrian invasion under Theglathphalasar, when their neighbours, the Reubenites and the Gaddites, were carried into captivity, they regained some of their old territory along the Jordan (2 Kings 15:29; Jeremiah 49:1-6). In the time of Josaphath, King of Judah, when the Israelites were greatly weakened, the Ammonites put themselves at the head of a confederacy of nations for the subjugation of Israel; but suspicion awakening among the allies, they turned to destroying one another and Israel miraculously escaped (2 Chronicles 20:23). After nearly one hundred and fifty years, Joatham, King of Judah, ventured an attack upon the Ammonites, conquering them and subjecting them to a yearly tribute (2 Chronicles 27), which, however, was enforced for only three years. But the doom of the Hebrew monarchy was approaching and the Ammonites had a part to play. With others of the surrounding nations, they were employed by Nabuchodonosor, King of Babylon, to overrun the kingdom of Judah (IV K., xxiv); and when the fall finally came, it was the king of the Ammonites who sent assassins into Judea to murder the governor who had gathered together the remnant of Judah (2 Kings 25; Jeremiah 40:14). After the return the old hatred is still seen to live (Nehemiah 4). In the time of Judas Maccabeus, the Ammonites are still a strong people, and the great leader had to fight many battles before he conquered them (1 Maccabees 5). No further mention of them occurs in biblical times; Justin Martyr refers to them as a numerous people in his day, but in the course of the next century they vanish completely from the view of history.
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Bible Dictionaries of HASTINGS, VIGOUROUX; Jewish Encyclopædia; DELITSCH, DILLMAN, DRIVER, GRAY, Commentaries (Numbers); LAGRANGE, Historical Method.
JOHN F. FENLON Transcribed by WGKofron With thanks to St. Mary’s Church, Akron, Ohio
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume ICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Ammonites
Ammonites, the descendants of the younger son of Lot (Gen 19:38). They originally occupied a tract of country east of the Amorites, and separated from the Moabites by the river Arnon. It was previously in the possession of a gigantic race called Zamzummims (Deu 2:20), ‘but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they succeeded them and dwelt in their stead.’ The ‘Israelites on reaching the borders of the Promised Land, were commanded not to molest the children of Ammon, for the sake of their progenitor Lot. But, though thus preserved from the annoyance which the passage of such an immense host through their country might have occasioned, they showed them no hospitality or kindness; they were therefore prohibited from ‘entering the congregation of the Lord’ (i.e. from being admitted into the civil community of the Israelites) ‘to the tenth generation for ever’ (Deu 23:3). This is evidently intended to be a perpetual prohibition, and was so understood by Nehemiah (Neh 13:1). The first mention of their active hostility against Israel occurs in Jdg 3:13. About 140 years later we are informed that the children of Israel forsook Jehovah and served the gods of various nations, including those of the children of Ammon, and the anger of Jehovah was kindled against them, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and of the children of Ammon. The Ammonites crossed over the Jordan, and fought with Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, so that ‘Israel was sore distressed.’ In answer to Jephthah’s messengers (Jdg 11:12), the king of Ammon charged the Israelites with having taken away that part of his territories which lay between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok, which, in Jos 13:25, is called ‘half the land of the children of Ammon,’ but was in the possession of the Amorites when the Israelites invaded it; and this fact was urged by Jephthah, in order to prove that the charge was ill-founded. Jephthah ‘smote them from Aroer to Minnith, even twenty cities, with a very great slaughter’ (Jdg 11:33). The Ammonites were again signally defeated by Saul (B.C. 1095) (1Sa 11:11), and, according to Josephus, their king Nahash was slain. His successor, who bore the same name, was a friend of David, and died some years after his accession to the throne. In consequence of the gross insult offered to David’s ambassadors by his son Hanun (2Sa 10:4), a war ensued, in which the Ammonites were defeated, and their allies the Syrians were so daunted ‘that they feared to help the children of Ammon any more’ (2Sa 10:19). In the following year David took their metropolis, Rabbah, and great abundance of spoil, which is probably mentioned by anticipation in 2Sa 8:12 (2Sa 10:14; 2Sa 12:26-31). In the reign of Jehoshaphat (B.C. 896) the Ammonites joined with the Moabites and other tribes belonging to Mount Seir, to invade Judah; but, by the divine intervention, were led to destroy one another. Jehoshaphat and his people were three days in gathering the spoil (2Ch 20:25). The Ammonites ‘gave gifts’ to Uzziah (2Ch 26:8), and paid a tribute to his son Jotham for three successive years, consisting of 100 talents of silver, 1000 measures of wheat, and as many of barley. When the two and a half tribes were carried away captive, the Ammonites took possession of the towns belonging to the tribe of Gad (Jer 49:1). ‘Bands of the children of Ammon’ and of other nations came up with Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem (B.C. 607), and joined in exulting over its fall (Eze 25:3; Eze 25:6). Yet they allowed some of the fugitive Jews to take refuge among them, and even to intermarry (Jer 40:11; Neh 13:23). On the return of the Jews from Babylon the Ammonites manifested their ancient hostility by deriding and opposing the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Neh 4:3; Neh 4:7-8). Both Ezra and Nehemiah expressed vehement, indignation against those Jews who had intermarried with the heathen, and thus transgressed the divine command (Deu 7:3; Ezra 10; Neh 13:25). Judas Maccabaeus (B.C. 164) fought many battles with the Ammonites, and took Jazer with the towns belonging to it. Justin Martyr affirms that in his time the Ammonites were still numerous.
The national idol of the Ammonites was Molech or Milcom, whose worship was introduced among the Israelites by the Ammonitish wives of Solomon (1Ki 11:5; 1Ki 11:7); and the high places built by that sovereign for this ‘abomination’ were not destroyed till the reign of Josiah (B.C. 610) (2Ki 23:13).
Besides Nahash and Hanun, an Ammonitish king Baalis is mentioned by Jeremiah (Jer 40:14).
In the writings of the prophets terrible denunciations are uttered against the Ammonites on account of their rancorous hostility to the people of Israel; and the destruction of their metropolis, Rabbah, is distinctly foretold (Zep 2:8; Jer 49:1-6; Eze 25:1-5; Eze 25:10; Amo 1:13-15).
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Ammonites
Descendants of Benammi, one of the sons of Lot
Gen 19:38
Character of
Jdg 10:6; 2Ki 23:13; 2Ch 20:25; Jer 27:3; Jer 27:9; Eze 25:3; Eze 25:6; Amo 1:13; Zep 2:10
Territory of
Num 21:24; Deu 2:19; Jos 12:2; Jos 13:10; Jos 13:25; Jdg 11:13
Israelites forbidden to disturb
Deu 2:19; Deu 2:37
Excluded from the congregation of Israel
Deu 23:3-6
Confederate with Moabites and Amalekites against Israel
Jdg 3:12-13
Defeated by the Israelites
Jdg 10:7-18; Jdg 11:32-33; Jdg 12:1-3; 1Sa 11:1-15; 2Sa 8:12; 2Sa 10; 2Sa 11:1; 2Sa 12:26-31; 2Sa 17:27; 1Ch 18:11; 1Ch 20:1-3; 2Ch 20; 2Ch 26:7-8; 2Ch 27:5
Conspire against the Jews
Neh 4:7-8
Solomon takes wives from
1Ki 11:1; 2Ch 12:13; Neh 13:26
Jews intermarry with
Ezr 9:12; Ezr 10:10-44; Neh 13:23
Kings of:
– Baalis
Jer 40:14; Jer 41:10
– Hanun
2Sa 10; 1Ch 19
– Nahash
1Sa 11:1-15; 2Sa 10:1-2; 1Ch 19:1-2
Idols of:
– Milcom
2Ki 23:13
– Molech
Molech
Prophecies concerning
Isa 11:14; Jer 9:25-26; Jer 25:15-21; Jer 27:1-11; Jer 49:1-6; Eze 21:20; Eze 21:28-32; Eze 25:1-11; Dan 11:41; Amo 1:13-15; Zep 2:8-11
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
AMMONITES
descendants of Lot
Gen 19:38; Deu 2:19; Deu 23:3; Jdg 10:7; 1Sa 14:47; 2Sa 8:12
2Ki24:2; 2Ch 20:23; 2Ch 26:8; Neh 4:3
Fuente: Thompson Chain-Reference Bible
Ammonites
the descendants of Ammon, the son of Lot. They took possession of the country called by their name, after having driven out the Zamzummims, who were its ancient inhabitants. The precise period at which this expulsion took place is not ascertained. The Ammonites had kings, and were uncircumcised, Jer 9:25-26, and seem to have been principally addicted to husbandry. They, as well as the Moabites, were among the nations whose peace or prosperity the Israelites were forbidden to disturb, Deu 2:19, &c. However, neither the one nor the other were to be admitted into the congregation to the tenth generation, because they did not come out to relieve them in the wilderness, and were implicated in hiring Balaam to curse them. Their chief and peculiar deity is, in Scripture, called Moloch. Chemosh was also a god of the Ammonites. Before the Israelites entered Canaan, the Amorites conquered a great part of the country belonging to the Ammonites and Moabites; but it was retaken by Moses, and divided between the tribes of Gad and Reuben. Previous to the time of Jephthah, B.C. 1188, the Ammonites engaged as principals in a war, under a king whose name is not given, against the Israelites. This prince, determining to recover the ancient country of the Ammonites, made a sudden irruption into it, reduced the land, and kept the inhabitants in subjection for eighteen years. He afterwards crossed Jordan with a design of falling upon the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. The Israelites resisted the invader; and, assembling at Mizpeh, chose Jephthah for their general, and sent an expostulatory message to the king of the Ammonites, Jdg 10:11. The king replied, that those lands belonged to the Ammonites, who had been unjustly dispossessed of them by the Israelites, when they came out of Egypt, and exhorted Jephthah to restore them peaceably to the lawful owners.
Jephthah remonstrated on the injustice of his claim; but finding a war inevitable, he fell upon the Ammonites near Aroer, and defeated them with great slaughter. On this occasion the Ammonites lost twenty cities; and thus an end was put, after eighteen years’ bondage, to the tyranny of Ammon over the Israelites beyond Jordan. In the days of Saul, 1 Samuel 11, B.C. 1095, the old claim of the Ammonites was revived by Nahash their king, and they laid siege to the city of Jabesh. The inhabitants were inclined to acknowledge Nahash as their sovereign; but he would accept their submission only on condition that every one of them should consent to lose his right eye, and that thus he might fix a lasting reproach upon Israel: but from this humiliating and severe requisition they were delivered by Saul, who vanquished and dispersed the army of Nahash. Upon the death of Nahash, David sent ambassadors to his son and successor Hanun, to congratulate him on his accession; but these ambassadors were treated as spies, and dismissed in a very reproachful manner, 2 Samuel 10. This indignity was punished by David with rigour. Rabbah, the capital of Hanun, and the other cities of Ammon, which resisted the progress of the conqueror, were destroyed and razed to the ground; and the inhabitants were put to death or reduced to servitude. In the reign of Jehoshaphat the Ammonites united with their brethren, the Moabites, and the inhabitants of Mount Seir, against the king of Judah; but they were completely routed. They were afterward overthrown by Uzziah, king of Judah, and made tributary, 2Ch 26:8; and rebelling in the reign of his son Jotham, they were reduced to the necessity of purchasing peace at a very dear rate. After the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, were carried into captivity by Tiglath-Pileser, B.C. 740, the Ammonites and Moabites took possession of the cities belonging to these tribes, and were reproached for it by Jer 49:1. Their ambassadors were exhorted to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, and threatened, on their refusal, with captivity and slavery, Jer 27:2-4. The Prophet Ezekiel, Eze 25:4-10, denounces their entire destruction, and informs them, that God would deliver them up to the people of the east; and that the Ammonites should no more be mentioned among the nations: and this punishment they were to suffer for insulting the Israelites on account of their calamities, and the destruction of their temple by the Chaldeans. This malediction began to be inflicted upon them in the fifth year after the taking of Jerusalem, when Nebuchadnezzar made war against all the people around Judea, A.M. 3420 or 3421, B.C. 583. It is probable that Cyrus granted to the Ammonites and Moabites liberty to return into their own country, whence they had been removed by Nebuchadnezzar; for they were exposed to the revolutions that were common to the people of Syria and Palestine, and were subject sometimes to the kings of Egypt, and sometimes to the kings of Syria. Polybius informs us, that Antiochus the Great took Rabboth, or Philadelphia, the capital of the Ammonites, demolished the walls, and put a garrison into it, A.M. 3806, B.C. 198. During the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Ammonites manifested their hatred to the Jews, and exercised great cruelties against such of them as lived in their parts. At length their city Jaser, and the neighbouring town, fell a prey to the Jews, who smote the men, carried their wives and children into captivity, and plundered and burned the city. Thus ended their last conflict with the descendants of Israel. Ammon was, however, a highly productive and populous country when the Romans became masters of all the provinces of Syria; and several of the ten allied cities, which gave name to the celebrated Decapolis, were included within its boundaries. Even when first invaded by the Saracens, this country, including Moab, was enriched by the various benefits of trade, covered with a line of forts, and possessed some strong and populous cities. Volney bears witness, that in the immense plains of the Hauran, ruins are continually to be met with, and that what is said of its actual fertility perfectly corresponds with the idea given of it in the Hebrew writings. The fact of its natural fertility is corroborated by every traveller who has visited it. And it is evident, says Burckhardt, that the whole country must have been extremely well cultivated in order to have afforded subsistence to the inhabitants of so many towns, as are now visible only in their ruins. While the fruitfulness of the land of Ammon, and the high degree of prosperity and power in which it subsisted long prior and long subsequent to the date of the predictions, are thus indisputably established by historical evidence and by existing proofs, the researches of recent travellers (who were actuated by the mere desire of exploring these regions and obtaining geographical information) have made known its present aspect; and testimony the most clear, unexceptionable, and conclusive, has been borne to the state of dire desolation to which it is and has long been reduced.
It was prophesied concerning Ammon, Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites, and prophesy against them. I will make Rabbah of the Ammonites a stable for camels and a couching place for flocks. Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and deliver thee for a spoil to the Heathen; I will cut thee off from the people, and cause thee to perish out of the countries; I will destroy thee. The Ammonites shall not be remembered among the nations. Rabbah (the chief city) of the Ammonites shall be a desolate heap. Ammon shall be a perpetual desolation,
Eze 25:2; Eze 25:5; Eze 25:7; Eze 25:10; Eze 21:32; Jer 49:2; Zep 2:9.
Ammon was to be delivered to be a spoil to the Heathento be destroyed, and to be a perpetual desolation. All this country, formerly so populous and flourishing, is now changed into a vast desert. (Seetzens Travels.) Ruins are seen in every direction. The country is divided between the Turks and the Arabs, but chiefly possessed by the latter. The extortions of the one, and the depredations of the other, keep it in perpetual desolation, and make it a spoil to the Heathen. The far greater part of the country is uninhabited, being abandoned to the wandering Arabs, and the towns and villages are in a state of total ruin. (Ibid.) At every step are to be found the vestiges of ancient cities, the remains of many temples, public edifices, and Greek churches. (Burckhardt’s Travels.) The cities are left desolate. Many of the ruins present no objects of any interest. They consist of a few walls of dwelling houses, heaps of stones, the foundations of some public edifices, and a few cisterns filled up; there is nothing entire, though it appears that the mode of building was very solid, all the remains being formed of large stones. In the vicinity of Ammon there is a fertile plain interspersed with low hills, which for the greater part are covered with ruins. (Burckhardt’s Travels in Syria.) While the country is thus despoiled and desolate, there are valleys and tracts throughout it which are covered with a fine coat of verdant pasture, and are places of resort to the Bedouins, where they pasture their camels and their sheep.
(Buckingham’s Travels in Palestine.) The whole way we traversed, says Seetzen, we saw villages in ruins, and met numbers of Arabs with their camels, &c. Mr. Buckingham describes a building among the ruins of Ammon, the masonry of which was evidently constructed of materials gathered from the ruins of other and older buildings on the spot. On entering it at the south end, he adds, we came to an open square court, with arched recesses on each side, the sides nearly facing the cardinal points. The recesses in the northern and southern wall were originally open passages, and had arched door ways facing each other; but the first of these was found wholly closed up, and the last was partially filled up, leaving only a narrow passage, just sufficient for the entrance of one man and of the goats, which the Arab keepers drive in here occasionally for shelter during the night. He relates that he lay down among flocks of sheep and goats, close beside the ruins of Ammon; and particularly remarks that, during the night, he was almost entirely prevented from sleeping by the bleating of flocks. So literally true is it, although Seetzen, and Burckhardt, and Buckingham, who relate the facts, make no reference or allusion whatever to any of the prophecies, and travelled for a different object than the elucidation of the Scriptures,that the chief city of the Ammonites is a stable for camels, and a couching place for flocks.
The Ammonites shall not be remembered among the nations. While the Jews, who were long their hereditary enemies, continue as distinct a people as ever, though dispersed among all nations, no trace of the Ammonites remains; none are now designated by their name, nor do any claim descent from them. They did exist, however, long after the time when the eventual annihilation of their race was foretold; for they retained their name, and continued a great multitude until the second century of the Christian aera. (Justin Martyr.) Yet they are cut off from the people. Ammon has perished out of the countries; it is destroyed. No people is attached to its soil; none regard it as their country and adopt its name: And the Ammonites are not remembered among the nations.
Rabbah (Rabbah Ammon, the chief city of Ammon) shall be a desolate heap. Situated, as it was, on each side of the borders of a plentiful stream, encircled by a fruitful region, strong by nature and fortified by art, nothing could have justified the suspicion, or warranted the conjecture in the mind of an uninspired mortal, that the royal city of Ammon, whatever disasters might possibly befal it in the fate of war or change of masters, would ever undergo so total a transmutation as to become a desolate heap. But although, in addition to such tokens of its continuance as a city, more than a thousand years had given uninterrupted experience of its stability, ere the prophets of Israel denounced its fate; yet a period of equal length has now marked it out, as it exists to this day, a desolate heap, a perpetual or permanent desolation. Its ancient name is still preserved by the Arabs, and its site is now covered with the ruins of private buildingsnothing of them remaining except the foundations and some of the door posts. The buildings, exposed to the atmosphere, are all in decay, (Burckhardt’s Travels in Syria,) so that they may be said literally to form a desolate heap. The public edifices, which once strengthened or adorned the city, after a long resistance to decay, are now also desolate; and the remains of the most entire among them, subjected as they are to the abuse and spoliation of the wild Arabs, can be adapted to no better object than a stable for camels. Yet these broken walls and ruined palaces, says Mr. Keith, which attest the ancient splendour of Ammon, can now be made subservient, by means of a single act of reflection, to a far nobler purpose than the most magnificent edifices on earth can be, when they are contemplated as monuments on which the historic and prophetic truth of Scripture is blended in one bright inscription.