Ammishaddai (Hastings' Dictionary)

A Danite, father of Ahiezer (see art.), Nul"2»7*'-" 10" (P). AMMIZABAD (i?!" 'kinsman for, my people) has made a present'). — Son of Benaiah, for whom he appears at times to have officiated ; but the statement in the only passage (1 Ch 27') where he is mentioned is obscure. G. B. Gray. AMMON, AMMONITES Cpril, r^r'!? ; in the inscriptions, Htt-Amm.ln). — A people occupj'ing territory east of tlie Jordan, between the Arnon on the south and the Jabbok on the north.

The land lying farther to the south, separated from them Dy the Arnon, was the possession of the Moabites. Before the arrival of the Israelites at the plains of Moab, the Ammonites had been driven back from the Jordan banks by an Amorite tribe from the west under Sihon. These Amorites estab- lished a kingdom, carved out of the Ammonite terri- tories, with Heshbon as their capital.

In this way a strip of land along the eastern bank of the nver, varying in breadth from 20 to 30 miles, ceased to be regarded as belonging to the Ammonites, and was assigned to the transjordanic tribes of Reuben and Gad. The original territories of the Ammon- ites, extending from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and reaching to the eastern bank of the Jordan, had in earlier years been held by a giant race called Zamzummim (Dt 2""^'), to whom it seems that Og, king of Bashan, also belonged (Dt 3").

As to the origin of the children of Ammon, an account is given in Gn 19^, which has been inter- preted by some as genuinely historical, and by others as a reminiscence of a certain family rela- tionship, coloured by bitter hostility and national hatred.

The latter position is maintained by such distinguished and moderate exegetes as Dillinann and Bertheau ; but by them the myth is regarded as historically justitied, and indeed suggested, by the lustful character and irregular habits of the Ammonites. On the other hand, Delitzsch perti- nently asks how such an origin can he assigned to the narrative, seeing that their supposed descent from Lot is made the one ground for exceptional treatment of the Ammonites and Moabites (Dt •29.

19) The story of their origin certainly does not afford occasion for contemptuous or hostile treatment. This can be accounted for only by their unbrotherly conduct towards Israel, which caused such delay and hardship on the eve of the entrance into the promised land (Dt 23''). It appears to Delitzsch that the lewdness and moral corruption which characterized their later history resulted from their tainted origin, rather than suggested the story of that origin as given in our Scriptures.

In any case, we must regard this notice as indicating a close relationship between the Ammonites and the Israelites. Tliat such a family connexion really did subsist between the two nations is con- firmed by the fact that almost all the names of Moabite and Ammonite persons and places that have come do\vn to us are easily understood by the use of a Hebrew lexicon.

From this circiim- stance Kautzsch quite fairly concludes that these nations caunot be reckoned among the Arab tribes, but must have a place given them among the races allied to the Hebrews. The name by which they were first known was 'children of Ammon.' Only in the literature of very late ages do we find the name Ammon used as the designation of the people (Ps 83').

In this very late, probably Maccabaean, psalm * (the only place in OT outside the Pent, in which Lot's name is found), a list is given of ten tribes confederated in open and violent opposition to Israel at the re-dedication of the temple, in which the names of Ammon and Moab occur. It is then said of all these confederates that ' they have holpen the children of Lot.' This latter designation is no doubt intended to apply to the Ammonites and Moabites.

The meaning of the name BenS-Ammi, literally 'sons of my people,' points to derivation from parents both of whom were of one race.

The statement in Nu 21", that ' the border of the children of Ammon was strong,' t coming aftei a description of the destruction of the Anmntes by the Israelites as reaching to that border, is under- stood by Kautzsch and others as indicating tlie reason why the Israelites did not carry their con- quests farther east, and as therefore opposed to Dt 2", which makes Israel avoid conflict with the Ammonites in consequence of a divine command.

The earlier passage, however, may be read as giving the reason wliy Sihon and his • See Eivald, History of Itrael, i. 812, and Cheyne, Origin ()f the J'mtU^, 1S91, p. 97. I Dillmann and many otkiTs read here iiv" 'Jazer tot ly 'strong.' AJIMOX, AMMONITES AMON 63 Amorites had not jmshed their conquests beyond this strip of land, with the possession of whicli they had rested salished. The Ammonites had retreated before the Amorites \rithin tlio natural fortresses of tJieir inland mountain region.

15ut thoui'h they had tlius under compulsion abandoned the fruitful Jordan Valley, the Ammonites never ceased to look apon the whole sweep of country down to the river banks as rightfully theirs. Some 800 years after the conquest of the land by the Isr., the king of the Ammonites made the unreasonable claim that they should restore to him tlie country that bad been taken so long before, not from his fore- fathers, but from their Amorite conquerors (Jg 11'*).

This the Israelites, umler the brave Gilead- ite chief Jephtliah, refused to do, inllicting upon the Animouites and their allies a most huniiliating and crushing defeat.* Previous to this, foreigh teen years, the Ammonites had harassed those who occupied the coveted district ; and so successful had they been in this that they were encouraged to venture across the Jordan, and there held in terror the war- like tribes of Juilah, Heiijamin, and Ephrarm. While this i.

s reported primarily and mainly to show the <ler)th to which the Israelites had sunk, it also afVords proof of the prowess and military importance of the Ammonites. When we next hear of them, in the early years of king Saul, the children of Amnion form a powerful nation under a cap.able ruler, kini; Nahash. One of the first di.

-tinetions in battle gained by Saul was his defeat of Nahash and the Ammonites, and the deliverance of the inhabit- ants of Jabesh-gilead, to whose city they had laid siege (1 S 11). The LXX text here reads that this eonflict took place about a month after Saul had ascended the throne.

During the earlier fart of the reign of Uavid, hostilities between srael and Amnion ceased, because in the time of his trouble, Nahash, either this same mon- arch or perhaps his successor, ' showed kindness to David ' (2 S 10^). On the death of David's friend, me-ssengers were sent to condole >vith his son Uanun, who, suspecting that they were spies, treated them infamously, so that David was obliged to enter upon a war to >vipe out the insult that had been put upon his ambassadors.

The sense- less conduct of the Ammonite monarch e\'idently awakened among the Israelites all the old bitter- ness, so that in the hour of victory David and his men lost all control of themselves, and inflicted npon the vanquished chililren of Amrnon the most cruel and revolting barbarities (2 S 12'-"'"). Their capital, Rabbalh-Ammon, was taken by Joab, David's commander-in-chief, though he gave the honour to the king.

This city (in Maccabican times known by the name of Philadelphia), one of the cities of the Decapolis, lay about 20 miles east of the Jordan, just outside the eastern border of the territory of'^ Uad, at the southern spring of the Jabbok. After the division of the kingdom, the country that had been taken from the Ammonites natur- ally fell with the rest of the transjordanic terri- tory to the nation of the ten tribes.

The Ammonites, however, soon took advantage of the weakness of the divided kingdom to assert again their independence. Tliev also joined eagerly with the Assyrians in their attack on Gik'a<i, obtaining increase of territory as the reward of their service ; and subsequently, when Tiglath- pileser defeated the Ueubenites and Cadites, the Ammonites seem to have been allowed to rcoccupy art-s, at least, of their old territory on the lanks of the Jordan (2 K 15", 1 Ch 'n-').

The cruelty which they practised in the war against • Ace. to Boine liKxIern criticH, liowever, Jg lll»-M U a late in- t<irp"Utlon (Moore, Judga, p. S!S3X bi Gilead as allies of the Syrians is described as having been committed with the object of getting their borders enlarged ; and for this, and for their malignant exultation over Israel's fall, they are denounced by the prophets (Am 1", Zeph 2''', Jer 49'-', Lzk 21^-*-).

We have a detailed account (2 Ch 20) of hostilities between the An:- monites, at the head of a powerful confederacj', and the southern kingdom of Jmlali luider Jehosha- pliat. Great preparations had been made for this campaign, which was intended to be decisive ; but suspicions of treachery among the allies turned the arms of the panic-stricken hosts against one another in a great slaughter, so that the children of Judah did not require to draw a swonl.

After nearly 150 years we again find the Am monites at war with Judah (2 Ch 27''), when they were thoroughly beaten bj' Jotham, and laid undci a heavy tribute. Duiing the years in whicli Judah was tottering on the verge of overthrow, the Ammonites appear among the vassal tribes used by ISabylon to harass and iilunder tho.se that had revolted from her sway (2 K 24'-).

After the overthrow of Judah, Baalis, the king of the Am- monites, entertaining still the old unconquerable enmity towards the Jews, sent Ishniael, a man remotely connected with the royal family of Judah, who had been resident in the country of Amnion, to murder the popular and successful governor Gedaliah, under whom the Jewish colony, consisting of those who remained in the land of Judah, had be''un to prosper (2 K 25'^-*, Jer 40'^).

In the days of Nehemiah, the Ammonites were active in their opposition to the Jews, maliciously endeavouring to lunder the building of the walls of the city and the restoration of the temple (Neh 4). Three hundred years later, in the time of Judas ]M.accab:ius, the Ammonites joined the Syrians against the Jews. The Jewish leader went through Gilead and inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Ammonites and their confederates under their com- mander Tiiiiotheus (1 Mae 5').

The Ammonites are referred to by Justin Martyr, about the middle of the second Christian cent., as even then a numerous people ; but not more than a century later Origen speaks vaguely of them, as of Moabites and Edoniites, clas.sing tiiem all with the Arab tribes ; and with this doubtful allusion they pass altogether out of history. Tlie Ammonites seem to have been notorious among the nations for their cruelty. Their religion wa.s a genuine reflection of this infamous national characteristic.

Their chief deity was Molech or Milcom (1 K W-"). Ammonitcs8(n>;i3y), woman of Ammon, 1 K 14"- ", 2 Ch I2'» 24". LiTKRATOiiE. — Kautisch In Rlehm, Hnn/fipSrterfmeA, 1884, pp. 5f>, 56 — an ajliiiirablo nnd cdinprehensivt' skftch. 8co iiiiliiiann and DelitzHch on Cn lliw In tin Ir Coniineiitarlps ; Ewnlil, History of hrad, ii. Iximlcin, lS7ll, \<f. 29.'i, 3:i6, 808 If. ; ill. 1878, p. 24, etc. ; Ebrard, Jpoloyttics, Eilin. in.^t. ii. 840-351. J. Maci'Ukrron.