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AmmonitesAid to Bible Understanding
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to pay this large sum during three successive years may have been due to their favorable position along one of the major trade routes from Arabia to Damascus and the relative fertility of the Jabbok valley region, wheat and barley still being principal products in this area.
Evidently the increasing intervention of Assyrian power in Palestine during the reign of Jotham’s successor Ahaz (761-745 B.C.E.) allowed the Ammonites to break free of Judean domination but only to exchange it for Assyrian oppression, for the records of Tiglath-pileser III list “Sanipu of Bit-Ammon [the house of Ammon]” as paying tribute to Assyria along with Ahaz of Judah and Salamanu of Moab. Sennacherib’s prism, recounting his invasion of Judah in Hezekiah’s time, likewise shows Ammon as bringing gifts to the Assyrian invader, while Sennacherib’s son Esar-haddon, a contemporary of Manasseh, includes “Puduil, king of Beth-Ammon,” among those providing materials for building the city of Nineveh.
It appears likely that, following the deporting of the people of the northern kingdom of Israel by Tiglath-pileser and subsequent Assyrian rulers (2 Ki. 15:29; 17:6), the Ammonites began occupying the territory of the tribe of Gad, for which they had unsuccessfully fought against Jephthah. (Compare Psalm 83:4-8.) Thus in Jehovah’s prophetic message through Jeremiah, the Ammonites are rebuked for seizing the Gadites’ inheritance and warned of a coming desolation upon Ammon and its god Malcham (Milcom). (Jer. 49:1-5) The Ammonites went yet further by sending marauder bands to harass Judah under King Jehoiakim during the closing years of the Judean kingdom.—2 Ki. 24:2, 3.
BABYLONIAN INVASION
With the Babylonian overthrow of Judah (607 B.C.E.) some Jews fled into Ammon, Moab and Edom, but returned upon hearing of the appointment of Gedaliah over the land. (Jer. 40:11, 12) King Baalis of Ammon, however, conspired with Judean army chief Ishmael in the assassination of Gedaliah (2 Ki. 25:23; Jer. 40:14; 41:1-3) and Ishmael thereafter took refuge in Ammon.—Jer. 41:10-15.
Although Ammon rejoiced at the fall of Jerusalem, Jehovah’s “day of accounting” with the circumcised Ammonites finally came upon them due to their uncircumcised hearts. (Jer. 9:25, 26; Ezek. 25:1-10) True to the prophecies proclaimed by Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Amos, the Ammonites began to drink the cup of Jehovah’s wrath and experienced sword, famine, pestilence and the desolation of their land.—Jer. 25:17, 21; 27:1-8; Ezek. 25:1-10; Amos 1:13-15.
That Ammon did not willingly submit to the Babylonian yoke is indicated by Ezekiel’s description of the king of Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar) standing at the crossways and using divination to decide whether to go against Rabbah of Ammon or against Judah. (Ezek. 21:19-23, 28-32) Though the choice came out for attack first upon Jerusalem, Jewish historian Josephus records that, in the fifth year after desolating Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar returned to war against Coelesyria, Ammon and Moab and thereafter attacked Egypt. (Antiquities of the Jews, Book X, chap. IX, par. 7) That Ammon did become “a resting place of a flock” and Rabbah “a pasture ground of camels” (Ezek. 25:5) is substantiated by the archaeological evidence showing that “Transjordan was largely depopulated before the middle of the sixth century B.C., and that sedentary occupation of Ammon ceased almost completely until the third century.” (The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1962, Vol. I, p. 112) Thus the camel-riding Orientals were able to possess the land and tent therein.—Ezek. 25:4.
It is likely that Ammonite exiles, along with those of other nations, were allowed to return to their homeland by Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon, in fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:6.
INTERMARRIAGE WITH ISRAELITES
Following the return of the Jews from captivity (537 B.C.E.), an Ammonite named Tobiah took a leading part in endeavoring to obstruct the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls. (Neh. 4:3, 7, 8) Yet later he had the arrogant audacity to make use of a dining hall within the temple precincts, until Nehemiah indignantly threw his furniture out. (Neh. 13:4-8; see TOBIAH No. 2.) Many of the returned Jewish exiles also had taken wives of Ammonite and other foreign extraction and were severely rebuked for this, resulting in a general dismissal of such wives.—Ezra 9:1, 2; 10:10-19, 44; Neh. 13:23-27.
After Tobiah’s ejection from the temple grounds God’s law at Deuteronomy 23:3-6 prohibiting the entry of Ammonites and Moabites into the congregation of Israel was read and applied. (Neh. 13:1-3) This restriction, imposed some one thousand years earlier because of the Ammonite and Moabite refusal to succor the Israelites when they were approaching the Promised Land, is generally understood to mean that these races could not enter into full legal membership in the nation of Israel with all the concomitant rights and privileges that such membership would signify. It does not mean, of necessity, that Ammonite and Moabite individuals could not associate themselves with or reside among the Israelites and thereby benefit from the divine blessings upon God’s people, and this is evident from the inclusion of Zelek, mentioned earlier, among David’s chief warriors, as well as from the record concerning Ruth the Moabitess.—Ruth 1:4, 16-18.
As to this latter case, Ruth’s marriage to Boaz shows that females of these races, upon turning to the worship of the true God, could be acceptable for marriage by Jewish males. Because the terms “Ammonite” and “Moabite” in the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy 23:3-6 are in the masculine gender the Jewish Talmud argues that only male Ammonites and Moabites were excluded from Israel. Nevertheless, Ezra’s insistence that the Jewish men send away their foreign wives and Nehemiah’s similar attitude, previously mentioned, indicate that the admission of Ammonite and Moabite females into association with Israel was dependent upon their acceptance of true worship.
Though historical evidence, including the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees (5:6), shows that Ammon continued to be a distinct territory down till the second century B.C.E., by the first century B.C.E. the region appears to have become part of the Nabataean kingdom and by the third century C.E. the Ammonites as a race disappear from history, doubtless absorbed by the Arabic tribes. As Zephaniah had prophesied, the sons of Ammon had become “like Gomorrah, . . . a desolate waste.”—Zeph. 2:8-10.
In view of the disappearance of the Ammonites early in the Common Era, Daniel’s mention of Ammon in his prophecy of the “time of the end” must apply in a spiritual sense and would logically refer to those who are among the hard-set enemies of the spiritual Israel of God, the Christian congregation.—Dan. 11:40, 41.
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AmnestyAid to Bible Understanding
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AMNESTY
At Esther 2:18 it is related that the Persian monarch Ahasuerus, after making Esther his queen, held a great banquet in her honor and granted “an amnesty for the jurisdictional districts” of his domain. The Hebrew word hana·hhahʹ here used occurs but once in the Scriptures. It is variously translated as “release” (AV), “remission of taxes” (RS), “holiday” (AT), “un jour de repos [a day of rest]” (JB [French]); and commentators suggest that the release or amnesty may have involved a remission of tribute, a remission of military service, release from prison, or a combination of these.
A different Hebrew word (shemit·tahʹ) is used elsewhere in the Scriptures to describe a releasing from debt or suspension of labor. (Deut. 15:1, 2, 9;
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