region

Ammon

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History

Ammon was the small kingdom east of the Jordan around its capital Rabbah, now Amman, on the upper Jabbok, with Gilead to the west and north, Moab to the south and the desert to the east. Genesis traces the Ammonites, "the children of Ammon", to Lot and his younger daughter. Their god was Milcom, "the abomination of the Ammonites", whom Solomon served in his old age. Their language, close to Hebrew and Moabite, is known from the Amman Citadel inscription of the ninth century BC, the Tell Siran bottle, seals and ostraca.

Israel on its way to Canaan was told not to meddle with the Ammonites, since their land was given "unto the children of Lot for a possession". In the time of the judges the Ammonites oppressed Gilead until Jephthah defeated them, having argued that Israel had taken its land east of the Jordan from the Amorites, not from Ammon. Nahash the Ammonite besieged Jabesh-gilead and demanded the right eyes of its men, and Saul's relief of the city made him king. Hanun, Nahash's son, shamed David's envoys; in the war that followed Uriah died before Rabbah, and David took the city and its king's crown. Solomon's Ammonite wife Naamah was the mother of Rehoboam.

Assyrian records list Ammonite kings paying tribute: Sanipu to Tiglath-pileser III in the 730s BC, Pudu-ilu to Sennacherib and Esarhaddon, Amminadab to Ashurbanipal. Ammonite bands harried Judah under Jehoiakim; Baalis, king of the Ammonites, sent the murderer of Gedaliah, the governor whom Nebuchadnezzar had left in Judah. Amos condemned Ammon for ripping up "the women with child of Gilead", and Ezekiel for saying "Aha" over the ruined sanctuary; Jeremiah asked why "their king" had inherited Gad. Tobiah "the Ammonite" opposed Nehemiah, and the Tobiads remained a power east of the Jordan into the second century BC, with their palace at Iraq el-Amir.

In the third century BC Rabbah was refounded as Philadelphia after Ptolemy II, and it later counted among the cities of the Decapolis. Ammon passed into the Roman province of Arabia in AD 106; Justin Martyr, writing about 160, still speaks of a great multitude of Ammonites. After the Arab conquest the old name returned as Amman, since 1921 the capital of Jordan, a city of several million people whose Citadel, the hill of ancient Rabbah, overlooks the Roman theatre.

Scripture: Gen 19:38; Deut 2:19; Judg 10:7; Judg 11:12–13; Judg 11:33; 1 Sam 11:1–2; 2 Sam 10:1–2; 2 Sam 12:26–31; 1 Kgs 11:5; 1 Kgs 14:21; 2 Kgs 24:2; 2 Chr 20:1; Neh 2:10; Jer 40:14; Jer 49:1–2; Ezek 25:2–5; Amos 1:13; Zeph 2:8–9

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (106)

Gen 19:38

And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Ben-ammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.

Num 21:24

And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon: for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.

Deut 2:19

And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession.

Deut 2:37

Only unto the land of the children of Ammon thou camest not, nor unto any place of the river Jabbok, nor unto the cities in the mountains, nor unto whatsoever the LORD our God forbad us.

Deut 3:11

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.

Deut 3:16

And unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites I gave from Gilead even unto the river Arnon half the valley, and the border even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;

Josh 12:2

Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the river, and from half Gilead, even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;

Josh 13:10

And all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, which reigned in Heshbon, unto the border of the children of Ammon;

Josh 13:25

And their coast was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, unto Aroer that is before Rabbah;

Judg 3:13

And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees.

Judg 10:6

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him.

Judg 10:7

And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.

Judg 10:9

Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.

Judg 10:11

And the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?

Judg 10:17

Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh.

Judg 10:18

And the people and princes of Gilead said one to another, What man is he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

Judg 11:4

And it came to pass in process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

Judg 11:5

And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob:

Judg 11:6

And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.

Judg 11:8

And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

Judg 11:9

And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head?

Judg 11:12

And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land?

Judg 11:13

And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.

Judg 11:14

And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon:

Judg 11:15

And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:

Judg 11:27

Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.

Judg 11:28

Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.

Judg 11:29

Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon.

Judg 11:30

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,

Judg 11:31

Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

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King James Version