Thus saith Jehovah For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.
Amos turns to Israel's neighbours one by one. Here he stops at Ammon, an old enemy on Israel's border. The charge is not a border quarrel. Ammon killed pregnant women in Gilead, and the aim was land.
Amos opens the sentence on each nation the same way. The repeated phrase is not a count of crimes. It marks a limit reached.
In each judgment prediction we find the phrase, "For three transgressions ... and for four ... I will not revoke the punishment." It means that the measure is full and that the judgment cannot be turned aside. These nations were the enemies of Israel.
The step from three to four carries its own weight.
In the first two chapters there are eight short announcements of judgment, introduced by the words "For three transgressions ... and for four." Three witnesses were enough testimony. Four is the cup running over, and the four quarters of the earth can testify to it.
The verse gives Ammon a reason for what they did. Their violence was cold planning, not blind rage.
Ammon, political and calculating in their desire to destroy Israel for their own interests, are doomed by God to go into captivity.
Killing the unborn wiped out the next generation. Gilead would then have no heirs left to claim it. And such cruelty did not stay in the ancient world.
Wicked Ammon had tried to wipe out the people for selfish reasons, "to enlarge their border." What horrible deeds — to rip open pregnant women! And this was not limited to the brutal warfare of 3,000 years ago. Others have done the same in wars right down to our own day. Judgment would overtake them also.
The charge fits what we know of this people. Their name, their way of life and their one city all point the same way.
If we look back at the history of Ammon in this way, it will keep its meaning for us. The name of their first father, Ben-ammi, "son of my people," says much, if we set it over against the people of God. He wants the land for himself too, as we see in the book of Judges. Yet he can possess nothing, since everything shows him to be only a wandering raider. We find no cities in the land of Ammon, nothing that marks the settled farmer. Rabbah is his one city, the stronghold of a wandering, mixed host, and the judgment that falls on it fits him exactly.
The same hostility reaches past one nation.
Ammon, as we know, was an ancient enemy of Israel. As a picture, it shows even more the heart's opposition to what is of God... This is always the work of the enemy of our souls. He does not only want a victory over the people of God. He wants to take from them the very portion God has given them.
God had bound Himself to the people Ammon attacked.
From the moment God is in Israel, He identifies Himself with His people. So He deals with the nations according to how they treated Israel... The moment they touch Israel, they touch the apple of His eye.
Ammon did hold that ground for a while. God's answer turns the theft back on them.
The LORD asks what right they had to the land of Gad. This was one of their sins, as we see in Amos: a violent raid on Gilead, and holding the land and cities for a time. But they are shown here that, secure as they thought themselves, their own capital would hear the alarm of war. Their daughters would share in its destruction, when Israel would be heir to those who had been his heirs.
These short sentences of judgment are not closed business.
As we think over these short judgment messages, we must remember one thing. These nations of the past no longer exist as nations, and the judgment foretold came long ago. Yet they stand as a pattern of the other nations, who also sin against Israel, and whose judgment will come "in that day."
- Measure. "Three transgressions, and for four" means the cup has run over. Three witnesses were enough testimony. The fourth seals a judgment that cannot be turned aside.
- Motive. Ammon's cruelty was calculated, not blind. They killed the unborn to leave Gilead without heirs and to widen their own border.
- Character. Their first father's name, Ben-ammi, "son of my people," stands over against the people of God. They wanted land they could never hold, wandering raiders with one city, Rabbah.
- Ground. God answers because He identifies Himself with His people; to touch Israel is to touch the apple of His eye.
- Reversal. God takes the stolen border back. Israel becomes heir to those who had been his heirs, and these judgments still show the pattern for the nations "in that day."
And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind.
Amos has just named Ammon's crime — ripping open pregnant women in Gilead to widen their border — and now comes the sentence: fire in Rabbah's wall. Why does God judge the cruelty of a nation that is not His own, and what do the fire and the whirlwind mean?
This chapter's sentences do not begin with Israel. They begin with the nations around Israel's land, and God speaks them from His own throne.
At the start Jehovah, proclaiming His own rights from the place of His own throne, roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem... We may note that God pronounces the judgment of the surrounding nations before He declares the judgment of Israel and Judah. He does this because of their hostile and cruel behaviour to the people of Israel, and because of what was cruel in their very nature, and against even ordinary human feeling. God takes account of all these things.
Ammon's atrocity was not a blind rage. It had an aim, and the aim is what makes it so cold.
Ammon were still political and calculating in their desire to destroy Israel for their own interests. God dooms them to go into captivity.
One writer will not let the horror stay in the past.
Wicked Ammon had tried to wipe out the people for selfish reasons, "to enlarge their border." What horrible deeds, to rip open pregnant women! And this is not limited to the savage warfare of 3,000 years ago. People have done the same in other wars right down to our own days. Judgment would overtake them also.
Rabbah was Ammon's capital, and Israel had already fought over it once.
The fortified capital of the Ammonites... Joab attacked it, and during its siege Uriah lost his life, because David had arranged it. The city was eventually taken and destroyed... Later, when the strength of Israel was broken, it seems to have recovered itself, for we find its doom announced in the prophets... The site is identified with the city of Amman.
Fire runs through the judgments of this chapter, and so does the phrase that seals them.
Six nations are named here, and judgment is announced against them... Then in each judgment prediction we find the phrase, "For three transgressions ... and for four, I will not revoke the punishment." The meaning is that the measure is full and that the judgment cannot be turned aside. Fire stands out as the mode of judgment.
Ammon felt safe. Another prophet takes up the same raid on Gilead and tells them what is coming.
Jehovah asks what right they had to the land of Gad. For this was one of their sins, as we see in Amos — a violent raid on Gilead, and possession of the land and cities for a time. But they are shown here that, secure as they thought themselves, their own capital would know the alarm of war, and their daughters would share its destruction.
Ammon saw Israel's weakness as their chance to gain. That hope is what undid them.
These judgments of Jehovah fall on the nations settled on the territory promised to Abraham, which belongs, by God's gift, to the people of Israel. God clears His land of what defiles it... We see here the folly of the hope the people's enemies entertained, when they sought Israel's ruin with the idea of gaining by it. God can certainly discipline His people, for He must make His own character plain; but the malice of their enemies brings His judgment on them too.
- Throne. God speaks from Zion, His own seat. He judges the nations before He says a word against Judah or Israel.
- Motive. Ammon's cruelty in Gilead was cold and calculated. It was a tool to enlarge a border.
- Fire. Fire is the repeated mode of judgment here. The phrase "for three transgressions ... and for four" means the measure is full and the verdict stands.
- Fortress. Rabbah was Ammon's fortified capital, the one place they trusted. The fire falls where they felt safest, amid the war cry and the storm.
- Folly. Ammon hoped to profit from Israel's weakness. God may discipline His people, but the malice of their enemies brings judgment on themselves.
And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith Jehovah.
Amos ends his word against Ammon with an exile, not a fire. The king walks out of his own capital, and his officials walk out with him. Why does God, speaking from Jerusalem, sentence a foreign court at all?
God sentences the nations around Israel before He names Israel and Judah. One writer points out where that voice comes from, and why those nations are judged:
At the start Jehovah claims His own rights from the place of His own throne. He roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem... We may note that He declares the judgment of the surrounding nations before He declares the judgment of Israel and Judah. He does this because of their hostile and cruel behaviour to the people of Israel. He does it also because of what was cruel in their very nature, and contrary even to the feelings of humanity. For God takes account of all these things.
Ammon raided Gilead and took the land and cities for itself. One writer names the mindset behind that raid, and the sentence it earned:
Ammon, still political and calculating in their desire to destroy Israel for their own interests, are doomed by God to go into captivity.
Ammon planned to profit from Israel's downfall. God's sentence turns that plan back on them:
We see here the folly of the hope entertained by the enemies of the people, in seeking their ruin with the idea of finding their own advantage in it. No doubt God can chastise His people, for He must make His own character clear; but the malice of their enemies brings His judgment on them too.
The word "king" carried a second weight in Ammon. Their god bore that very name, just as Moab's god was Chemosh. One writer explains what that naming reveals:
In Ammon their god is Moloch — that is, "king" — in fact, whether or not by right. Or rather, fact is right: not God is King, reigning because He is divine; but the king is God, divine because he reigns. And this is nothing strange among men... This is a system connected in all its parts. So they sacrificed men to both Chemosh and Moloch. At such shrines they slaughter human beings constantly.
A people who judged divinity by power watched their own king led away.
Jeremiah's prophecy brings the same charge against Ammon. One writer contrasts how safe they felt with what was coming:
Jehovah asks what right they had to the land of Gad. This was one of their sins, as we see in Amos — a violent raid on Gilead and possession of the land and cities for a time. But they are shown here that, secure as they thought themselves, their own capital would hear the alarm of war, and their daughters would share its destruction, when Israel becomes heir to those who were his heirs.
These short judgment messages reach beyond the nations they name:
In meditating on these short judgment messages we must remember that, while these nations of the past have ceased to exist as nations, and the predicted judgment came long ago, these nations are typical of the other nations who also sin against Israel, and whose judgment will come "in that day."
Captivity is where Amos leaves Ammon. It is not where God leaves them:
Where is Ammon today? In what tribe or nation is a remnant preserved? Only the Omniscient One knows. But their captivity, like that of Moab, will be brought back again in the days when Israel becomes the head of the nations.
- Cause. Ammon planned its cruelty for profit, and God takes account of behaviour that offends even ordinary human feeling.
- Court. God speaks this sentence from His throne in Zion. He judges the surrounding nations before He judges His own people.
- Crown. Ammon called its god "king" and treated power as proof of divinity. Then it watched its own king walk into exile.
- Rebound. Ammon looked for its own advantage in Israel's ruin. That malice pulled God's judgment onto Ammon.
- After. The exile really happened, and it sets the pattern for nations God has yet to judge. Yet God will one day bring Ammon's captivity back.