Amos 1:13

Ammon. - Amo 1:13. "Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, and for four, I shall not reverse it, because they have ripped up the pregnant women of Gilead, to widen their border, Amo 1:14. I kindle fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it will devour its palaces, with the war-cry on the day of slaughter, in the storm on the day of the tempest. Amo 1:15. And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes all at once, saith Jehovah." The occasion on which the Ammonites were guilty of such cruelty towards the Israelites as is here condemned, is not recorded in the historical books of the Old Testament; possibly during the wars of Hazael with Israel, when they availed themselves of the opportunity to widen their territory by conquering back the land which had been wrested from them by Sihon king of the Amorites, and was then taken possession of by the Israelites, when he was overcome by them, - a thing which they had attempted once before in the time of Jephthah the judge (Jdg 11:12.). We may see from Jer 49:1. that they had taken possession of the territory of the tribe of Gad, which lay nearest to them, though probably not till after the carrying away of the tribes beyond Jordan by the Assyrians (Kg2 15:29). The ripping up of the women with child (see at Kg2 8:12) is singled out as the climax of the cruelties which the Ammonites inflicted upon the Israelites during the war. As a punishment for this, their capital was to be burned, and the king, with the princes, to wander into exile, and consequently their kingdom was to be destroyed. Rabbâh, i.e., the great one, is the abbreviated name of the capital; Rabbah of the children of Ammon, which has been preserved in the ruins of Aurân (see at Deu 3:11). The threat is sharpened by the clause בּתר…

In this chapter we have, I. The general title of this prophecy (Amo 1:1), with the general scope of it (Amo 1:2). II. God's particular controversy with Syria (Amo 1:3-5), with Palestine (Amo 1:6-8), with Tyre (Amo 1:9, Amo 1:10), with Edom (Amo 1:11, Amo 1:12), and with Ammon (Amo 1:13-15), for their cruelty to his people and the many injuries they had done them. This explains God's pleading with the nations, Joe 3:2.

1:13 Israel regarded the people of Ammon as kin who also betrayed them. The Ammonites (like the Moabites, 2:1) were descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew (Gen 19:37-38). Ammon had been a constant threat to Gilead (see Judg 10:7-9). • In ancient times, conquering armies commonly ripped open pregnant women (2 Kgs 8:12; 15:16; Hos 13:16); they also raped the women and slaughtered the children of the towns they seized (Isa 13:16, 18; Lam 5:11; Hos 10:14; 13:16; Nah 3:10; Zech 14:2).