Jeremiah 49:1-6

V. AN ORACLE AGAINST AMMON Jeremiah 49:1-6

TRANSLATION

(1) Against the children of Ammon. Thus says the LORD: Has Israel no sons; has he no heir? why does their king possess Gad, and his people dwell in his cities? (2) Therefore, behold, days are coming (oracle of the LORD) when I will cause Rabbah Ammon to hear the shout of battle; and it shall become a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned. Then Israel shall possess his possessors, says the LORD. (3) Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste! Cry out, O daughter of Rabbah! Gird on sackcloth, mourn, run to and fro with gashes; for their king shall go into captivity, his priests and princes together. (4) Why do you glory in the valleys, your flowing valleys, O backsliding daughter, who trusts in her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me? (5) Behold, I am about to bring fear against you (oracle of the LORD of hosts) from all round about you. You shall be thrust out each man before him. There shall be no one to gather the fugitive. (6) After this I will reverse the fortunes of the children of Ammon (oracle of the LORD).

COMMENTS

The territory of Ammon lay just north of Moab with its capital Rabbah (modern Amman) on the Jabbok river. The Ammonites and Moabites were closely connected by descent and frequently united together in attacks against Israel. Prior to the Israelite invasion of Transjordan under Moses the Ammonites had been dislodged from their traditional home by the Amorite king Sihon. When the Israelites defeated Sihon, they assigned the former Ammonite territory to the tribe of Gad. With the Assyrian deportations of the northern tribes the Ammonites were able to gradually filter back into their ancient territory and occupy towns and villages which for centuries had belonged to Israel.

The oracle against Ammon lends itself nicely to an alliterative outline. Jeremiah speaks here of the crime (Jeremiah 49:1), conquest (Jeremiah 49:2-5), and the conversion (Jeremiah 49:6) of Ammon.

A. The Crime of Ammon Jeremiah 49:1

The crime of Ammon is infringement upon Israelite territory. From the very earliest times the Ammonites had laid claim to the territory occupied by the tribes of Transjordan. Jephthah had attempted to settle the issue by diplomacy back in the period of the Judges. To the charge that Israel had taken by force the territory of the Ammonites, Jephthah replied that as a matter of fact the Ammonites did not OCCUPY that territory when Israel had entered the land. Since Israel had not taken the land from Ammon originally and since Israel had already occupied the land for three hundred years, Jephthah argued that the Ammonites no longer had any claim to the territory (Judges 11:12-28). The king of Ammon refused to accept this reasoning and war broke out between the two peoples with Jephthah inflicting a crushing blow upon the Ammonites. Now, centuries after Jephthah, the territorial issue has been raised again. Since the Assyrians had removed so many Israelites from the area in 734 and 722 B.C., the Ammonites were able to occupy certain villages in the tribal territory of Gad. It is to this incursion that Jeremiah refers in verse one. Has Israel no sons? Has he no heirs? the prophet asks. It is true that Israel has been carried captive but will not his descendants return to claim the land Ammon has wrongfully seized? Their king is better read as a proper name Malcam as in the ASV. Malcam or Milcom or Molech was the chief god of the Ammonites (1 Kings 11:5; 1 Kings 11:7) and here represents his people just as Chemosh (Jeremiah 48:7) represents the Moabites.

B. The Conquest of Ammon Jeremiah 49:2-5

The seizure of Israelite territory is an affront to the Lord for He is there (Ezekiel 35:10), that is to say, it is His land.[393] Therefore, the Lord will bring about the conquest and destruction of Ammon. Rabbah and her daughters (minor cities depending on her) will be destroyed, burned and left desolate. Israel then will be able to recover the territory lost to Ammon (Jeremiah 49:2). The destroyer of Ammon is not specifically named but there can scarcely be doubt that Jeremiah has in mind Nebuchadnezzar. The great Chaldean king devastated Ammon and Moab in 582-581 B.C. At this time the Ammonite king was Baalis who had been instrumental in the assassination of Gedaliah (Jeremiah 40:14).

[393] 2 Kings 5:17; Hosea 9:3; Joel 2:18; Joel 3:2; Leviticus 25:23; Psalms 85:1.

In view of the forthcoming destruction of the land, Jeremiah calls upon the Ammonites to cry and howl in lamentation over their fate. In uncontrollable grief Jeremiah pictures them running hither and yon trying to find safety behind the hedges or stonewalls around fields and vineyards. Though a city of Moab, Heshbon seems at this period to have been under Ammonite control. The location of Ai, mentioned only here, is unknown. The reason for the grievous lamentation is that their god Malcam (see Jeremiah 49:1) has been carried off into captivity along with his priests and his princes (Jeremiah 49:3). What a disconcerting discovery to find that one's god is really more helpless than the people who worship him.

The Ammonites were proud of their fruitful valleys, particularly the valley of the Jabbok river. The apostate nation had turned from the living God and placed their trust in their natural resources and treasures. Ammon boasted, Who shall come unto me? (Jeremiah 49:4). That false confidence will be shattered when God brings a fear upon the land. It will be every man for himself. With only the thought of self-preservation in mind the inhabitants of Ammon will flee in all directions (Jeremiah 49:5). Every man right forth probably means that each man takes what he thinks is the shortest route to safety. No one bothers to collect or rally the fugitives. What a sad future awaits those who regarded themselves as invincible.

G. The Conversion of Ammon Jeremiah 49:6 As in the case of Moab, a note is appended to the oracle against Ammon indicating that the Ammonites will in the future experience the grace of God. The language here is almost identical with that of Jeremiah 48:47 except that the phrase afterward replaces the more prophetically precise phrase in the latter days. See comments on Jeremiah 48:47.