Concerning the children of Ammon. Thus saith Jehovah Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? Why is Malcam heir of Gad, and his people dwell in the cities thereof?
The chapter turns from Moab to Ammon, a nation east of the Jordan. Ammon had moved into land that belonged to the tribe of Gad, and God's question is not about armies or borders. It is about who holds the rightful title to the land.
Ammon was a neighbour of Israel and a relative by blood.
Ben-ammi was the son of Lot by his youngest daughter. "He is the father of the Ammonites." Gen. 19:38. His descendants were neighbours to Israel on the east, between the Arnon and the Jabbok. They had many dealings with Israel. God had told Moses not to touch the Ammonites, and Israel was not to take their land: He had given it to the children of Lot. Their city was Rabbath-ammon, perhaps their only city, as they were a nomadic people.
So the protest of this verse is not that Israel wanted Ammon's territory. God had fenced Ammon's land off from Israel. Ammon would not return the courtesy.
Gad's land lay east of the Jordan. It was rich ground, and it fell empty at a datable moment in history.
Gad held a large district. It ran from a little above the north corner of the Dead Sea to near the south corner of the Sea of Galilee. This was then a very fertile plain, suitable for their flocks and herds, and it took in the highlands of Gilead. The tribes on the east of the Jordan were the first carried away by the king of Assyria, about B.C. 740; and the Ammonites took possession of the territory of Gad.
God's opening words are a challenge about right. The answer He gives turns the whole arrangement around.
The Lord demands 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 a possession of the land and cities for a season. But they are shown here that, though they thought themselves safe, their own capital will hear the alarm of war. Their daughters will share in its destruction, when Israel becomes heir to those who were his heirs.
The name behind the phrase is the national god of Ammon; the ESV reads "Milcom" where older translations put "their king."
The idol of the Ammonites. Solomon took up its worship. It appears to be the same as Molech.
The name means "king." That meaning carries the logic of Ammon's claim: holding the land is treated as proof of right.
In Ammon he is Moloch — that is, "king" — in fact, whether or not in right. Or rather, whatever is the fact is treated as right. It is not that God is King, reigning because He is divine. Instead the king is God, divine because he reigns. And that is nothing strange among men.
Writers have also drawn a lesson for believers here. Something with no right to it can occupy ground that belongs to God's children.
In verse 1 we find the Ammonites were in the land, in that place which belonged to Israel. It is therefore asked, "Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir?" Believers today are sons and heirs of God. We enjoy this relationship and this inheritance as we walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. "All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Rom. 8:14). We have not received a spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit, by whom we cry, Abba, Father.
Kelly warns against reading such promises as already fulfilled in the Church.
It is a poor interpretation that finds the fulfilment of such prophecies in the Church. Many read them this way because they do not know that God is going to bring Christ in His kingdom to inherit the earth and all nations at His coming.
The sentence on Ammon is not the last word about them.
The predicted judgment has come. Where is Ammon today? In what tribe or nation is a remnant preserved? Only the all-knowing 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.
- Kinship. Ammon came from Lot and lived next door to Israel. God had told Israel to leave Ammon's own land alone.
- Seizure. Assyria carried off the tribes east of the Jordan, and Ammon moved into Gad's cities. Kelly ties this to the violent raid on Gilead in Amos.
- Claim. Their god's very name means "king," and their case rested on holding the ground, not on any grant of right.
- Question. God's challenge is about heirs: an owner's absence never cancels the owner's title.
- Reversal. Ammon's capital thought itself safe, but it will hear the alarm of war. Israel will inherit those who inherited him, and even Ammon is promised restoration at the end.
Therefore behold, days come, saith Jehovah, that I will cause the clamour of war to be heard in Rabbah of the children of Ammon; and it shall be a desolate heap; and her towns shall be burned with fire; and Israel shall possess them that possessed him, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah 49 turns to Ammon, an old enemy of Israel who had taken over the land God gave to the tribe of Gad. Verse 1 asks why someone else is living in Israel's cities, and verse 2 answers: war on Rabbah, and a reversal of who holds the land.
The battle cry has a reason behind it. One writer points to what Ammon had taken.
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 this word shows them that, secure as they thought themselves, their own capital would know the alarm of war. Their daughters would share its destruction, when Israel becomes heir to those who were his heirs.
Where the older translation says "her daughters," the ESV says "its villages."
Ammon's habit was not simply to defeat Israel but to strip them of what God had given. Writers reading Ammon as a picture see the same pattern at work still.
Ammon, as we know, was an ancient enemy of Israel; and, as a picture, shows still more the opposition of the heart to what is of God. Remember how Ammon stood out in the days of Jephthah, and later in the days of Saul, under its king Nahash, "the serpent." He was bent on taking from Israel the land that was their own. 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 which God has given them.
The city named here was Ammon's one real stronghold — which is why its ruin is the whole nation's ruin.
Rabbah is his one city, "many," as we may read the word — the hold of a mixed crowd, as it were, but the stronghold of a wandering desert people. The judgment which falls upon it fits this exactly… In the fitting ways of God, the land of Ammon is given up to raiders like themselves, "the sons of the East." Under them Rabbah is itself broken up, and becomes only a home for camels, the burden bearers of the desert.
The verse ends with Israel taking back what was taken. Who is that promise for?
It is a poor interpretation which finds in the Church the fulfilment of such prophecies. Many read it that way because they do not know that God is going to bring Christ in His kingdom at His coming, to inherit the earth and all nations. That kingdom is as distinct from the gospel now as it is from the eternal state which follows the judgment of the great white throne.
Another writer sets the same reversal in a future day:
When the king of the north enters "the glorious land" in a future day, Edom, Moab, and Ammon will escape his hand (Dan. 11:41). They are kept for Israel to subdue — the people they seduced and persecuted in ages past (Isa. 11:14).
Ammon's ruin is not the end of their story. One writer shows why some nations fare differently from others.
There is a difference with respect to the restoration of those nations in the last days. Egypt, Elam, Moab, Ammon are restored in the last days; Edom, Damascus, Philistia, Hazor are not. The reason for this is plain. Egypt and Elam form no part of the land of Israel. God in His goodness will have compassion on those countries. People will live in them again, blessed under His government. When the people of Israel entered Canaan, Ammon and Moab were to be spared. They were not Canaanites under the curse. Their land was kept for them because they were related to the family of Israel.
One writer draws out the personal lesson from the fire of verse 2 and the question of sonship in verse 1.
God will judge them with consuming fire (v. 2), just as the sin offering pictured the judgment of the flesh… In verse 1 we find the Ammonites in the land, in the place that belonged to Israel. So the question comes: Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Believers today are sons and heirs of God. We enjoy that relationship and inheritance as we walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.
- Claim — Ammon had no right to Gad's land; the seizure recorded by Amos is the charge that brings the alarm of war.
- Craving — the enemy wants more than a victory. He wants the portion God gave His people.
- Collapse — Rabbah was Ammon's one stronghold, so the judgment that falls on it falls on the whole nation.
- Claimants — Israel will dispossess those who dispossessed them. That points to Christ's kingdom on earth, not to the church.
- Compassion — Edom, Damascus, Philistia and Hazor get no such promise. God restores Ammon. The ruin is severe, but not final.
Howl, Heshbon! for Ai is laid waste; cry, daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth, lament and run to and fro within the enclosures for Malcam shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together.
Jeremiah 49:3 belongs to a short message against the Ammonites. They lived east of the Jordan, and they had moved into land God gave to Israel's tribe of Gad. The verse orders towns to mourn in public, and it names what goes into exile first: not the treasure, but the god.
Heshbon heads the list. It had changed hands more than once, and it had once been Israel's own:
Chief city of Sihon king of the Amorites. Lying east of the Jordan, it was the first city of importance that fell into the hands of the Israelites... Heshbon was later assigned to Reuben, but became a city of the Levites connected with Gad... After the captivity it fell into the hands of the Moabites, and it is denounced in the prophets. Isaiah 15:4; Jeremiah 48:2, 34, 45; Jeremiah 49:3.
Heshbon is told to wail because Ai lies in ruins. No one today can locate that town:
City of the Ammonites, unknown. Jeremiah 49:3.
The verse also calls on the daughters of Rabbah. Rabbah was the Ammonite capital, and it had been beaten down once and had climbed back:
The fortified capital of the Ammonites... Joab attacked it, and during the siege Uriah, at David's urging, lost his life. The city was eventually taken and destroyed... Later, when the strength of Israel was broken, it appears to have recovered itself, for we find its doom announced in the prophets. Jeremiah 49:2-3; Ezekiel 21:20; Ezekiel 25:5; Amos 1:14. Identified with Amman.
That capital is the city of Amman today. The charge behind the judgment is theft of land. God asks what claim Ammon had on land that belonged to Gad. Then He says where the war will fall:
Jehovah demands 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 season. But here they are shown something else. However safe they thought they were, their own capital would hear the alarm of war. Their daughters would share its destruction, when Israel becomes heir to those who were his heirs.
Older translations read "their king shall go into captivity"; ESV names him — Milcom. He was no man, but Ammon's idol, and Israel's own history had already been damaged by him:
Milcom and Molech were the gods of the Ammonites, and Solomon's foreign wives seduced him into worshipping them. 1 Kings 11:5, 7.
One writer draws out the thinking behind that name:
In Ammon he is Moloch — that is, "king" — in fact, whether or not by right. Instead, fact is right. It is not that God is King, reigning because He is divine. It is that the king is God, and is divine because he reigns. And this is nothing strange among men.
The priests and the officials go into exile with him. A god who is only power has nothing left when the power fails.
The message to Ammon runs from verse 1 to verse 6. One writer reads the whole of it as a picture of the flesh — human nature apart from God:
Fear, a characteristic of the flesh, is to take them (v. 5), just as it came upon Moab. They are to be judged with consuming fire (v. 2)... They must learn, like Moab, not to trust in their treasures (v. 4), and like him they shall eventually know deliverance (v. 6).
One writer places the blow in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and asks whether the mourning of this verse will be heard again:
This desolation fell on Moab, Ammon and the rest in the day of Nebuchadnezzar, I suppose, because they tied their fortunes to Egypt. Possibly the howling, the lamentation and the panic described in verses 3-5 may also come before their captivity is brought back in the last days. Their mourning is all the more pitiful because of the self-confidence and boasting that went before.
Another writer asks where Ammon is now, and answers from the promise rather than the map:
Ammon was the younger brother of Moab, and like the Moabites the Ammonites were a wicked people... The predicted judgment has come. Where is Ammon today? In what tribe or nation is a remnant preserved? Only the all-knowing One knows. But their captivity, like Moab's, will be brought back again in the days when Israel becomes the head of the nations.
- Seizure. Ammon seized land God had given to Gad. God asks by what right, and that theft is why the alarm sounds.
- Security. Rabbah was a fortified capital that had once climbed back from ruin. It felt safe. The alarm of war reached it anyway.
- Sackcloth. Heshbon and the daughters of Rabbah must wail in public. Ai lies waste, and the grief cannot be hidden.
- Milcom. Their god's name means "king." He goes into exile with his priests and officials. A god who is only power falls when the power falls.
- Sequel. The ruin is not the end. Ammon's captivity will be reversed when Israel becomes head of the nations, so the judgment is real but not final.
Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys? Thy valley shall flow down, O backsliding daughter, that trusteth in her treasures, [saying,] Who shall come against me?
Ammon moved into Gad's land after Israel went into exile, and boasted of a rich valley, full treasuries, and the belief that no one could reach them. The question is why God treats that sense of safety as the very thing He must break.
Ammon's judgment does not stand alone. Chapters 46 to 49 name one neighbour after another, and the list follows a pattern.
In Jeremiah 46 we have the sentence against Egypt, where these foolish Jews had fled for safety, and then the sentence against Philistia in Jeremiah 47. Moab comes next (Jer. 48) — because all these countries were places the Jews looked to for security. In Jeremiah 49 comes the judgment of the Ammonites, along with Damascus and others, even Elam.
Ammon had taken the land of Gad by force. God's reply names what will happen to the place they felt safest.
God demands 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 season. But God shows them here that, secure as they thought themselves, their own capital would know the alarm of war. Their daughters would share its destruction, when Israel would be heir to those who had been his heirs.
God judged Moab, Ammon's neighbour, one chapter earlier. One writer names where Moab's trust really lay, and why it failed.
They made human strength their arm and trusted in man, turning away in heart from God. But wings are not enough to escape with, when God directs the blow.
"Who will come against me?" is the calm of someone whose future feels covered. One writer explains what a hoard does to the mind.
The man who hoards up is virtually making a god of his hoard. Thinking of his hoard puts his mind at ease about the future, for if he did not have that hoard he would be uneasy. It is enough to put a natural man completely out of his senses to give him nothing but God to depend on. Anything but that, for him.
The boast does not last. One writer sets the panic of verses 3 to 5 beside what God still intends for Ammon.
The howling, grief and panic described in verses 3-5 are all the more pitiful because of the self-satisfaction and boasting that went before. They may also come before the return of their captivity in the last days.
Some writers read Ammon as a picture of the flesh — human nature as it is in itself. On that reading, Ammon's lesson about treasure belongs to the believer too.
They must learn, like Moab, not to trust in their treasures (v. 4), and like him they will eventually know deliverance (v. 6)... The flesh, as such, can have no standing in Christ. Yet those who were once in sin, and who now know Him as their Saviour, Lord and Deliverer, are "in Christ" where there is a new creation.
Commentators differ here. Some keep to the history of the nations. Others draw out this moral picture.
The judgment is real, but for Ammon it is not the last word. Verse 6 promises their fortunes restored, and not every nation here gets that promise.
These nations were all to fall under the power of Nebuchadnezzar; but some of them are to be restored in the latter day. Among these nations will be Elam, Egypt, Moab and Ammon, but not Philistia, not Damascus, not Hazor, and above all not Babylon.
- Boast — Ammon glories in a rich valley and a full treasury, on land it seized and never owned.
- Trust — the hoard does the work God should do. It quiets the mind, until having only God to lean on feels unbearable.
- Reach — wealth is no shelter when God directs the blow. The city they felt safest in hears the alarm of war first.
- Reversal — the louder the boasting, the more pitiful the panic that follows it.
- Mercy — God turns Ammon's captivity back afterwards, a mercy not given to every nation in this chapter.
Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts, from all that are about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall assemble the fugitives.
Ammon had settled into land that belonged to Israel, boasting of a rich valley and asking who would dare attack. God's answer is terror on every side — so why is fear itself the punishment, and why is no one left to gather those who flee?
Ammon's confidence rested on treasures and on a capital city they thought no army could reach. One commentator sets the two side by side: the security they imagined, and the alarm that came:
But here they learn the truth. They thought themselves secure, yet their own capital would hear the alarm of war. Their daughters would share its destruction, when Israel becomes heir to those who had been his heirs.
The terror is not random. Ammon had taken land God gave to Israel, and seemed to have got away with it:
Ammon had escaped; the enemy of God's people had gone free... This is always the work of the enemy of our souls — not just to win a victory over the people of God, but to take from them the very portion God has given them... But God's eye is on it, and Ammon is not to escape. Ammon misjudges the work of God completely, as the enemy always misjudges it, and so brings on himself the wrath he is rejoicing over when it falls on others.
The threat comes from every side, and it matches the crime. Ammon grabbed land he could never truly hold, so God hands the raider over to raiders:
He covets the land for himself, though he can really take possession of nothing. He is only the nomad raider that everything shows him to be. Rabbah is his one city. The word can be read as "many" — the hold of a mixed crowd, as it were, but the stronghold of a desert people who live by wandering. The judgment that falls on it matches this in every way. In the fitting ways of God, He gives up the land of Ammon to raiders like themselves, "the sons of the East"... men whose hand was against everyone, and everyone's hand against them.
The weapon God names is not a sword but dread. One writer links this fear to the flesh, and to the treasures Ammon trusted:
Fear, a characteristic of the flesh, is to take them (v. 5), just as it came on Moab (Jer. 48:43)... They must learn, like Moab, not to trust in their treasures (v. 4), and like him they will eventually know deliverance (v. 6)... We have not received a spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit, by whom we cry, Abba, Father.
Each man runs straight ahead, and nobody rallies the scattered. One commentator asks where Ammon can be found today:
The predicted judgment has come. Where is Ammon today? In what tribe or nation is a remnant preserved? Only the Omniscient One knows. But their captivity, like Moab's, will be brought back again in the days when Israel becomes the head of the nations.
Verse 6 turns the whole message around. One writer takes the fulfilment under Nebuchadnezzar as the fact, and leaves a later application open as well:
Desolation came on Moab, Ammon, and the rest in the day of Nebuchadnezzar, because they tied their fortunes to Egypt, the great southern rival of Babylon. That, I suppose, is the fact. The howling and lamentation and panic described in verses 3-5 are all the more pitiful because of the earlier self-satisfaction and boasting. They may also come just before the return of their captivity in the last days.
This mercy is not promised to every nation in the chapter:
These nations were all to fall under the power of Nebuchadnezzar; but some of them are to be restored in the latter day. Among these nations will be Elam, Egypt, Moab and Ammon, but not Philistia, not Damascus, not Hazor, and above all not Babylon.
- Grab — The root offence: Ammon took from God's people the very portion God had given them, then gloated when judgment fell on them.
- Boast — Trusting treasures and a stronghold, Ammon asked, "Who will come against me?" That safety was only in their own thinking. Their capital would hear the alarm of war.
- Blowback — Ammon misjudged God's work, as the enemy always does. The wrath he enjoyed watching fall on others now falls on him. God hands the raider over to raiders.
- Fear — The punishment is dread from every side. One writer calls fear a mark of the flesh. Believers have received the Spirit instead, and by Him they cry "Abba, Father."
- Afterward — Ammon was scattered with no one to gather them, and vanishes from history. Yet verse 6 promises their captivity brought back — a mercy not promised to Philistia, Damascus, Hazor or Babylon.
And afterwards I will turn the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah's message against Ammon is five verses of alarm, fire and flight. Then the last line turns into a promise. Why does a nation that seized Israel's land have any future at all — and when does that "afterward" come?
Chapters 46 to 49 pass judgment on the nations around Judah. One commentator notes that they do not all end the same way:
These nations were all to fall under the power of Nebuchadnezzar; but some of them are to be restored in the latter day.
The charge in verse 1 is land theft: Ammon's king had moved into Gad's cities. The same writer traces the crime and the answer to it:
The Lord demands 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 a possession of the land and cities for a season. They thought themselves secure. But they are shown here that 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.
Moab's judgment comes just before Ammon's in the book. The two nations are tied together at every stage:
Ammon's judgment follows Moab's. The two are alike in their origin, in their conduct towards Israel and the Lord, and also in the end His mercy would assign them.
One writer traces the difference between these nations back to the day Israel first entered Canaan:
Egypt, Elam, Moab and Ammon are restored in the last days; Edom, Damascus, Philistia and Hazor are not. The reason is easily seen… When the people of Israel entered Canaan, Ammon and Moab were to be spared. They were not Canaanites under the curse. Their origin was a shameful one, but they were related to the family of Israel, and so their land was kept for them. Even so, to the tenth generation they could not enter the congregation of Israel (Deut. 23:3). And when God puts an end to Nebuchadnezzar's dominion, and to the empire of the Gentiles, these nations will enter again the countries allotted to them.
Edom was spared at the same point, but abused the favour. The same writer adds that "as their hatred of Israel had been unbounded, they should be totally destroyed in the judgment of that day."
The judgment on Ammon happened. The promise has not. One writer counts this verse among God's promises to pagan nations:
There are many other similar texts, but these, referring to the pagan nations of the ancient world, steeped as they were in the worst sin, will be enough for the present. No one pretends that they have happened yet, or that they can happen in the present age.
Where Ammon is now, no one can say. Another commentator leaves the question open but holds the promise firm:
The predicted judgment has come. 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.
Some read promises like this one as fulfilled in the Church. One writer rejects that:
It is a poor interpretation that finds the fulfilment of such prophecies in the Church. Many hold it because they do not know that God is going to bring Christ in His kingdom to inherit the earth and all nations at His coming.
Ammon's failings are common ones: fear, and trust in what it owned. One writer reads them as a picture of the flesh, and turns verse 1's question on us:
Fear, a characteristic of the flesh, is to take them (v. 5), even as it came upon Moab. … They must learn, like Moab, not to trust in their treasures (v. 4), and like him they shall eventually know deliverance (v. 6). … In verse 1 the Ammonites are in the land, in the place that belonged to Israel. So the question comes: Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Believers today are sons and heirs of God, and this relationship and inheritance are enjoyed as we walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.
- Cause — Ammon seized land that was not its own and settled in Gad's cities. God's answer: its own capital would hear the alarm of war.
- Company — Ammon and Moab share one origin, one record against Israel, and one end in God's mercy. The same promise of return covers both.
- Contrast — Not every nation here has an "afterward". Ammon and Moab are restored; Edom, Damascus, Philistia and Hazor are not. Edom abused an early kindness, so its judgment is heavier.
- Afterward — The judgment is history. The restoration is not. No one claims it has happened yet, so it waits for the days when Israel is head of the nations.
- Application — Fear and trust in treasures are Ammon's marks. Sons and heirs enjoy their inheritance by walking in the Spirit, not the flesh.