Amos 1:13-15

The Ammonites. The Ammonites occupied the district E. of Jordan bounded by the Arnon on the S., and by the territory of Reuben and the upper course of the Jabbok, on the W. Their capital was Rabbah, mentioned in Amos 1:14. They were closely related to their neighbours on the S., the Moabites, being reckoned as a brother-nation (Genesis 19:37 f.); but (cf. D.B[137] s.v.), to judge from allusions in the O. T., they seem to have been less settled and civilised: their inhumanity in warfare appears from Amos 1:13, and the proposal in 1 Samuel 11:2; and a suspicious discourtesy towards allies is evinced in 2 Samuel 10:1-5. David reduced the Ammonites to the condition of tributaries (2 Samuel 8:12; cf. 2 Samuel 12:31); but it does not seem that they continued in this condition for long. Various examples of their hostility towards Israel are recorded in Judges 10:7 ff. (their oppression of the trans-Jordanic Israelites, which was put an end to by Jephthah, ib.Judges 11:33); 1 Samuel 11; 2 Kings 24:2; Jeremiah 40:14; Nehemiah 2:10; Nehemiah 4:3; Nehemiah 4:7; comp. also Zephaniah 2:8; Jeremiah 49:1; Ezekiel 21:28; Ezekiel 25:2; Ezekiel 25:6, which shew now they evinced a malicious satisfaction in Israel's troubles, and sought to turn them to their own profit.

[137] .B.… Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Exodus 1, or (from A to J) Exodus 2.