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Ammonites
See also: Jordan, Palestine, Middle East. The animals are on Ammonite.
This page contains entries from two public domain works: the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica and Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897). Considerable refactoring, merging, NPOVing and updating required.
Ammonites, or the "children of Ammon," a people of east
Palestine who, like the Moabites, traced their origin to
Lot, the nephew of the patriarch Abraham, and must have been
regarded, therefore, as closely related to the Israelites and
Edomites. Both the Ammonites and Moabites are sometimes
spoken of under the common name of the children of Lot
(Deut. ii. 19; Ps. lxxxiii. 8); and the whole history shows
that they preserved throughout the course of their national
existence a sense of the closest brotherhood. According to the
traditions, the original territory of the two tribes was the
country lying immediately on the east of the Dead Sea, and
of the lower half of the Jordan, having the Jabbok for its
northern boundary; and of this tract the Ammonites laid claim
to the northern portion between the Arnon and the Jabbok, out
of which they had expelled the Zamzummim (Judg. xi. 13; Deut.
ii. 20 sqq.; cf. Gen. xiv. 5), though apparently it had been
held, in part at least, conjointly with the Moabites, or
perhaps under their supremacy (Num. xxi. 26, xxii. 1; Josh.
xiii. 32). From this their original territory they had been
in their turn expelled by Sihon, king of the Amorites, who
was said to have been found by the Israelites, after their
deliverance from Egypt, in possession of both Gilead and
Bashan, that is, of the whole country on the left bank of the
Jordan, lying to the north of the Arnon (Num. xxi. 13). By
this invasion, as the Moabites were driven to the south of
the Arnon, which formed their northern boundary from that
time, so the Ammonites were driven out of Gilead across
the upper waters of the Jabbok where it flows from south to
north, which henceforth continued to be their western boundary
(Num. xxi. 24; Deut. ii. 37, iii. 16). The other limits of
the Ammonitis, or country of the Ammonites ('Lmmanitis
chora, 2 Mac. iv. 26), there are no means of exactly
defining. On the south it probably adjoined the land of
Moab; on the north it may have met that of the king of Geshur
(Josh. xii. 5); and on the east it probably melted away into
the desert peopled by Amalekites and other nomadic races.
The chief city of the country, called Rabbah, or Rabbath of
the children of Ammon, i.e. the metropolis of the Ammonites
(Deut. iii. 11), and Rabbathammana by the later Greeks
(Polyb, v. 7. 4), whose name was changed into Philadelphia
by Ptolemy Philadelphus, a large and strong city with an
acropolis, was situated on both sides of a branch of the
Jabbok, bearing at the present day the name of Nahr
`Amman, the river of Ammon, whence the designation "city
of waters" (2 Sam. xii. 27); see Survey of E. Pal (Pal.
Explor. Fund), pp. 19 sqq. The ruins called Amman by the
natives are extensive and imposing. 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 which, however fierce,
was settled and industrious, a fact indicated also by the
tribute of corn paid annually to Jotham (2 Chron. xxvii. 5).
The traditional history of Ammon as related in the Old
Testament is not free from obscurity, due to the uncertain
date of the various references and to the doubt whether the
individual details belong to the particular period to which
each is ascribed. (See further MOAB.) 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 II. at the battle of Karkar[?] in 854.
In 734 their king Sanip(b)u was a vassal of Tiglathpileser
IV., and his successor, P(b)udu-ilu, held the same position
under Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. Somewhat later, their
king Amminadab was among the tributaries who suffered in the
course of the great Arabian campaign of Assurbanipal. With
the neighbouring tribes, the Ammonites helped the Babylonian
monarch Nebuchadrezzar against Jehoiakim (2 Kings xxiv. 2);
and if they joined Zedekiah's conspiracy (Jer. xxvii. 3), and
were threatened by the Babylonian army (Ezek. xxi. 20 sqq.),
they do not appear to have suffered punishment at that period,
perhaps on account of a timely submission. When, after the
destruction of Jerusalem, the fugitive Jews were again gathered
together, it was at the instigation of Baalis, king of Ammon,
that Gedaliah, the ruler whom Nebuchadrezzar had appointed over
them, was murdered, and new calamities were incurred (Jer.
xl. 14); and when Nehemiah prepared to rebuild the walls of
Jerusalem an Ammonite was foremost in opposition (Neh. ii.
10, 19, iv. 1-3).1 True to their antecedents, the Ammonites,
with some of the neighbouring tribes, did their utmost to
resist and check the revival of the Jewish power under Judas
Maccabaeus (1 Macc. v. 6; cf. Jos. Ant. Jud. xii. 8. 1.).
The last notice of them is in Justin Martyr (Dial. cum Tryph.
sec. 119), where it is affirmed that they were still a numerous
people. The few Ammonite names that have been preserved
(Nahash, Hanun, and those mentioned above, Zelek in 2 Sam.
xxiii. 37 is textually uncertain) testify, in harmony with
other considerations, that their language was Semitic, closely
allied to Hebrew and to the language of the Moabites. Their
national deity was Moloch or Milcon. (See MOLOCH.) (S. A. C.)
1 The allusions in Jer. xlix. 1-6; Zeph. ii. 8-11; Ezek.
xxi. 28- 32; Judg. xi. 12-28, have been taken to refer to
an Ammonite occupation of Israelite territory after the
deportation of the east Jordanic Israelites in 734, but more
probably belong to a later event. The name Chephar-Ammoni
(in Benjamin; Josh. xviii. 24) seems to imply that the
"village" became a settlement of "Ammonites." Some light
is thrown upon the obscure history of the post-exile period
by the references to the mixed marriages which aroused the
reforming zeal of Ezra and culminated in the exclusion of
Ammon and Moab from the religious community--on the ground
of incidents which were ascribed to the time of the "exodus"
(Deut. xxiii. 3 sqq.; Ezr. ix. 1 sqq.; Neh. xiii. 1 sqq.).
Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed
Ammonite - the usual name of the descendants of Ammon, the son of Lot (Gen.
19:38). From the very beginning (Deut. 2:16-20) of their history
till they are lost sight of (Judg. 5:2), this tribe is closely
associated with the Moabites (Judg. 10:11; 2 Chr. 20:1; Zeph.
2:8). Both of these tribes hired Balaam to curse Israel (Deut.
23:4). The Ammonites were probably more of a predatory tribe,
moving from place to place, while the Moabites were more
settled. They inhabited the country east of the Jordan and north
of Moab and the Dead Sea, from which they had expelled the
Zamzummims[?] or Zuzims[?] (Deut. 2:20; Gen. 14:5). They are known as
the Beni-ammi (Gen. 19:38), Ammi or Ammon being worshipped as
their chief god. They were of Semitic origin, and closely
related to the Hebrews in blood and language. They showed no
kindness to the Israelites when passing through their territory,
and therefore they were prohibited from "entering the
congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation" (Deut. 23:3).
They afterwards became hostile to Israel (Judg. 3:13). Jephthah
waged war against them, and "took twenty cities with a very
great slaughter" (Judg. 11:33). They were again signally
defeated by Saul (1 Sam. 11:11). David also defeated them and
their allies the Syrians (2 Sam. 10:6-14), and took their chief
city, Rabbah, with much spoil (2 Sam. 10:14; 12:26-31). The
subsequent events of their history are noted in 2 Chr. 20:25;
26:8; Jer. 49:1; Ezek. 25:3, 6. One of Solomon's wives was
Naamah, an Ammonite. She was the mother of Rehoboam (1 Kings
14:31; 2 Chr. 12:13).
The prophets predicted fearful judgments against the Ammonites
because of their hostility to Israel (Zeph. 2:8; Jer. 49:1-6;
Ezek. 25:1-5, 10; Amos 1:13-15).
The national idol worshipped by this people was Molech or
Milcom, at whose altar they offered human sacrifices (1 Kings
11:5, 7). The high places built for this idol by Solomon, at the
instigation of his Ammonitish wives, were not destroyed till the
time of Josiah (2 Kings 23:13).
From Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
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