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AMMON

(Heb. ʿammôn),
AMMONITES (ʿammônîm)

A sedentary people living east of the Jordan at the headwaters of the river Jabbok, known also from the annals of Sennacherib (ANET, 279), Tiglath-pileser III (282), and Assurbanipal (294). Although distinctively Ammonite material culture might not be clearly distinguishable before the Iron Age, the Ammonites as a people emerged, arguably, in the Middle Bronze Age around Rabbah (Rabbath-ammon), perhaps when the Ammonite populace overpowered the Rephaim, a rival ethnic group (cf. LXX Deut. 2:21). Ammonite culture reached its florescence in wealth, power, and influence during the 9th-6th centuries b.c. Relevant excavated sites include the Amman citadel, Tell Safut, Tell Siran, Tell Jawa (South), Khilda, Khirbet el-Hajjar, Meqabelein, Rujm el-Malfuf, Tell el-Mazar, Tell Sahab, Tell el-ʿUmeiri, and Umm ad-Dananir.

Geographical boundaries and political/military influence of the Ammonite kingdom doubtlessly varied from time to time. From the original area limited more or less to the broader environs of Rabbah itself, Ammonites are said to control the entire space between Wadi Môjib (Arnon) and Wadi Zerqa (Jabbok), from the eastern desert to the Jordan River. Ammonite rule was frequently eclipsed by premonarchic tribal settlements and, later, by Israelite and Judahite kings.

Ammonites enter the biblical scene in an alliance with Amalekites to help the Moabite king Eglon defeat Israel (Judg. 3:12-14). The following 18-year subjugation was construed as punishment for Israel’s abandoning the relationship with God in preferring to worship the Baals and Astartes of their neighbors (Judg. 10:6-18). The Ammonites were defeated by Jephthah (Judg. 11:33), slaughtered by Saul (1 Sam. 11:11), and forced to pay tribute to David (2 Sam. 8:12), who finally conquered them. Subsequently, the Ammonite Naamah married Solomon and presented him with Rehoboam, a future king of Judah (1 Kgs. 14:21, 31). Israelite animosity toward the Ammonite (and Moabite) is forcefully stated: none “may ever be admitted to the assembly of the Lord,” nor any descendants of theirs “even to the tenth generation” (Deut. 23:3[MT 4]).

Ammonite religion was of the nature/fertility sort typical of polytheism everywhere in antiquity. The male deity Baal and his female counterparts Astoreth/Astarte/Asherah coming together ritually ensured the fertility and well-being of both people and land. As Israelites accepted these beliefs and practices, the scribes and prophets denounced them. Milcom was the main Ammonite god. His precious gold crown David stole for himself. Solomon’s Ammonite wife persuaded the king not simply to build a temple to Milcom, but even to abandon Yahweh for the worship of her native Ammonite god. Milcom’s counterpart is represented in the form of terra-cotta female fertility figurines found in many Iron Age excavations. Ammonite religious culture, being foreign to Israelite faith, is what makes them enemies without regard to changing political-military situations.

By the time the northern and southern kingdoms collapsed, Ammonites ceased to be a common enemy to Israel and Judah. The population of lower Gilead in all likelihood had already been comprised both of Ammonite and Israelite tribes and families who were by no means always at odds with each other. During the Exile, and especially after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, many Jews sought refuge among the Ammonites east of the Jordan (Jer. 40:11).

Perhaps it is the Priestly writer, concerned with genealogies, who puts the Ammonites in a better light. Origin narratives of eponymous ancestry link them with Abraham through Lot (Gen. 19:38). Ammonite ancestry was conceived (literarily if not also literally) in a union between Lot and, unbeknown to Lot, Lot’s daughter. As with etiologies generally, the interest is not in biology but in conveying a value, in this case a positive relationship between Israelites and Ammonites due to an ancestral bond (Gen. 11:27). Lot migrates with Abraham (Gen. 12:4-5); Abraham later rescues Lot (14:12-16). Lot’s younger daughter names her son Ben-ammon, “The son of my kinsman,” making clear that all Ammonites are relatives of all Israelites.

One can easily see a parallel between Israelite incursions into Late Iron Rabbath-ammon and ancient Israelite invasions under Moses. The author of Deut. 2, , in prohibiting Moses from invading LB Ammonite territory, gives the reason why Iron Age Judahites should not encroach on their host country: the Lord had given it to the descendants of Lot (v. 19). In the worldview of antiquity, lands belong to gods. Presenting its origins as a measure of Yahweh’s own dispensation conveys Israel’s recognition of the legitimacy of the Ammonite kingdom, its very existence deriving ultimately from an act of Yahweh. A plausible occasion to affirm this value would have been in the face of a common enemy: Babylon.

While it may be correct to speak of the end of an effective and distinct Ammonite kingdom shortly after Late Iron, it is erroneous to think of them as simply absorbed into the local population soon after. Ammonite strength continued. Worldwide conquests by the Persians and Greeks overshadowed but did not necessarily lessen the regional significance of the Ammonites, who lasted clearly into the Hellenistic period. The region became important again with significant Hellenistic influxes, but it was still in its own cultural continuum under the Ptolemies. Ptolemy II renamed Ammon Philadelphia and it eventually became a key city of the Decapolis. Ammonite power and influence continued at least until defeat by Judas Maccabeus in the 2nd century (1 Macc. 5:6).

Donald H. Wimmer

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

AMMON

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)