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Easton's Bible Dictionary
Another form of the name Ben-ammi,
the son of Lot ( Genesis
19:38 ). This name is also used for his posterity ( Psalms
83:7 ).
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
a people; the son of my people
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(sons of renown, mountaineers) Ammonites, Children of
Ammon, A people descended from Ben-ammi, the son of Lot by his younger daughter.
( Genesis
19:38 ) comp Psalm
83:7 , 8
The Ammonites are frequently mentioned with the Moabites (descendants of Ben-ammis
half-brother), and sometimes under the same name. Comp. ( Judges
10:6 ; 2
Chronicles 20:1 ; Zephaniah
2:8 ) etc.
The precise position of the territory of the Ammonites is not ascertainable. In
the earliest mention of them, ( 2:20 ) they are said to have dwelt in their place,
Jabbok being their border. ( Numbers
21:24 ; Deuteronomy
2:37 ; 3:16
) (i.e. Land or country is, however, but rarely ascribed to them. Their capital
city was Rabbath, called also Rabbath Ammon on the Jabbok. We find everywhere
traces of the fierce habits of maranders in their incursions.) ( 1
Samuel 11:2 ; Amos
1:13 ) and a very high degree of crafty cruelty to their toes. ( Jeremiah
41:6 ,
41:7 ; Judges
17:11 ,
17:12 ) Moab was the settled and civilized half of the nation of Lot, and
Ammon formed its predatory and Bedouin section. On the west of Jordan they never
obtained a footing.
The hatred in which the Ammonites were held by Israel is stated to have arisen
partly from their denial of assistance, ( Deuteronomy
23:4 ) to the Israelites on their approach to Canaan. But whatever its origin
the animosity continued in force to the latest date. The tribe was governed by
a king, ( Judges
11:12 ) etc.; ( 1
Samuel 12:12 ; 2
Samuel 10:1 ; Jeremiah
40:14 ) and by "princes." ( 2
Samuel 10:3 ; 1
Chronicles 19:3 ) The divinity of the tribe was Molech [MOLECH], and they
were gross idolaters.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
am'-on, am'-on-its ('ammon; 'ammonim):
The Hebrew tradition makes this tribe descendants of Lot
and hence related to the Israelites (Genesis
19:38). This is reflected in the name usually employed in Old Testament to
designate them, Ben 'Ammi, Bene 'Ammon, "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 (Deuteronomy
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 (Numbers
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 (Judges
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 (1
Samuel 11) and of David (2
Samuel 10). This may account for the cruel treatment meted out to them in
the war that followed (2
Samuel 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 (2
Samuel 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 (2
Kings 15:29 ; 1
Chronicles 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
Chronicles 20). They paid tribute to Jotham (2
Chronicles 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
(2
Kings 24:2). Their cruelty is denounced by the prophet Amos
1:13, and their destruction by Jeremiah
49:1 - 6
; Ezekiel
21:28 - 32
; Zechariah
2:8 , 9.
Their murder of Gedaliah (2
Kings 25:22 - 26;
Jeremiah
40:14) was a dastardly act. Tobiah the Ammonites united with Sanballat to
oppose Nehemiah (Nehemiah
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 5:6). Their religion was a degrading and cruel superstition. Their
chief god was Molech, or Moloch, to whom they offered human sacrifices (1
Kings 11:7) against which Israel was especially warned (Leviticus
20:2 - 5).
This worship was common to other tribes for we find it mentioned among the Phoenicians.
H. Porter
Tags:
ammon, ammonites, ben-ammi, bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, define, lot (descendants of), molech, tribe
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