The Ammonites were a powerful people who occupied a portion of the land of Canaan. They lived in a fertile area northeast of Moab in the area east of the Jordan between the Arnon and Jabbok Rivers and extending eastward to the Syrian Desert. The main city was Rabbah (Rabbath-ammon), which today is known as Amman, the capital of Jordan.
The Ammonites traced their ancestry to the younger daughter of Lot (Genesis 19:38). Their name in Hebrew originally meant “son of my paternal clan,” which suggests the family relationship between the Ammonites and Israelites (Lot was Abraham’s nephew, making the Ammonites and the Israelites distant relatives). The name appears frequently in ancient Near Eastern history at the beginning of the second millennium B.C.
Though these people were of mixed ancestry, the languages they spoke were closely related to Hebrew. Ammonite was written in the old Canaanite-Phoenician script, which could probably be read and understood by Israelites. Ammonites intermarried with Hebrews (1 Kings 14:21, 31; 2 Chronicles 12:13), and their personal names reflected early Arabic influences.
In language, ethnic background, and physical characteristics the Ammonites were difficult to distinguish from Amorites and were probably closely related. Both may have entered the land at about the same time, for when Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan, both the Ammonite kingdom and the Amorite kingdom of Heshbon were already well established.
The Old Testament states that the territory of Ammon was once occupied by a race of giants called Rephaim or Zamzummim, about whom almost nothing is known (Deuteronomy 2:20-21; “Zuzim,” Genesis 14:5). The Genesis Apocryphon, a book found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, mentions them as one of the people defeated by the alliance of four kings (Genesis 14:1, 5). The expedition of Kedorlaomer, king of Elam (Genesis 14), broke the power of those giants and probably made the occupation of the land by Esau, Ammon, and Moab much easier. King Og was “of the remnant of the Rephaim” known to the Ammonites (Deuteronomy 3:11). His bed was evidently an object of reverence because of its unusual size.
When the Israelites arrived at Kadesh, they encountered the well-organized kingdom of Edom but were refused permission to pass through Edomite territory (Numbers 20:14-21). They journeyed northward to Ammonite country, which was then occupied by the Amorite king Sihon. He also refused them permission to pass through his land, but the Israelites defeated him in battle and occupied his country (Numbers 21:21-24). They were instructed by God through Moses not to try to occupy Ammonite territory, as it had already been given to the descendants of Lot (Deuteronomy 2:19, 37).
Continuing northward, the Israelites defeated King Og of Bashan (Deuteronomy 3:1-11), then went down to the Jordan Valley, where they camped on the plains of Moab. There Balak, king of Moab, hired a soothsayer, Balaam, to pronounce a curse on the Israelites, but Balaam pronounced a blessing each time instead (Numbers 22–24). For supporting the Moabites in their actions, the Ammonites were excluded from the congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation (Deuteronomy 23:3; Nehemiah 13:1-2).
The Israelite tribes of Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh were attracted to the fertile region east of the Jordan River that had belonged to the Amorites and Bashan. These tribes settled there on the Ammonite frontier (Numbers 32; Deuteronomy 3:16; Joshua 13:8-32). Subsequently they built an altar at the Jordan River, and Israel’s other tribes at first interpreted this as an act of rebellion, since Gad and Reuben seemed to be trying to set up an alternate place of worship (Joshua 22:10-34).
Before the Israelite conquest of Canaan, the Ammonites evidently had not attained the same level of political organization and settled life as the neighboring Moabites and Edomites. Even as late as the seventh century BC the nation was basically nomadic. Shortly after Israel settled in Canaan, the Ammonites allied with the Moabites and Amalekites when King Eglon of Moab tried to regain former Moabite territory at the north end of the Dead Sea (Judges 3:12-13).
By the end of the twelfth century BC the Israelites, then securely established in the land of Canaan, angered God by their worship of the gods of the Syrians, Sidonians, Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines (Judges 10:6). The Ammonites attacked Israel and established themselves in Gilead (10:7-8). They then crossed the Jordan and attacked the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim (10:9). In desperation the elders of Gilead turned for help to Jephthah, who was a social outcast but an able military leader (11:1-11). He defeated the Ammonites so decisively that it was unnecessary for him to wage further campaigns against Ammonite settlements west of the Jordan (11:12-33).
Near the end of the eleventh century, an Ammonite king named Nahash came to power, determined to reestablish Ammonite power over Israelite settlements east of the Jordan. He launched an aggressive military campaign around 1020 BC that took him as far north as Jabesh-gilead. The inhabitants of the town were willing to surrender to him but delayed their surrender to appeal for help from Saul, the recently consecrated Israelite king. Saul quickly organized an army and decisively defeated the Ammonites (1 Samuel 11:1-11). The victory ensured freedom from Ammonite domination in the Jordan Valley for several centuries, although later in his reign Saul was forced to fight further battles with the enemies of Israel, including Ammonites (1 Samuel 14:47-48).
When David became king, he took silver and gold from the Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalekites, either as spoils or as tribute (2 Samuel 8:11-12; 1 Chronicles 18:11). Soon thereafter, David sent Joab at the head of a strong army to devastate the Ammonite countryside and besiege the capital city of Rabbah (2 Samuel 11:1; 1 Chronicles 20:2). The siege lasted many months, but Joab weakened the city and David then completed its capture (2 Samuel 12:26-29). In a ceremony of capitulation, the Ammonite king’s massive golden crown was placed on David’s head (2 Samuel 12:30; 1 Chronicles 20:1). The conquered city was plundered, and its inhabitants were enslaved. Other Ammonite cities were taken, and the nation was added to the growing number of vassal states of Israel (2 Samuel 12:31; 1 Chronicles 20:3). David appointed a governor over the Ammonites from the Ammonite royal family. Shobi, another son of Nahash (and therefore Hanun’s brother), became ruler of the Ammonites and aided David during his flight from Absalom’s rebellion (2 Samuel 17:27). One of David’s best warriors was an Ammonite (2 Samuel 23:37).
Ammonite relations with Israel remained generally peaceful during the reign of Solomon, David’s successor, with the Ammonites undoubtedly sharing in the prosperity and wealth of that period. After the death of Solomon, the kingdom split apart under Rehoboam and was further weakened by a campaign of Egypt’s king Shishak, who swept through Palestine and also through Ammonite territory. Taking advantage of the situation, the Ammonites declared their independence from Israel and Judah. The Ammonites joined the Moabites and Meunites to make war against King Jehoshaphat of Judah (reigning 871–848 BC). In fear, Jehoshaphat sought help from God in prayer (2 Chronicles 20:1-12). The Ammonites and their allies began fighting among themselves and destroyed each other, leaving behind great spoils for Jehoshaphat and his people—which took three days to be carried away (2 Chronicles 20:22-25). Eventually the Ammonites recovered, so that by the end of the seventh century BC, Ammon had again become completely independent and was the dominant state of the southern Transjordan area (east of the Jordan River).
Ammonite independence was short, however, for in 599 BC, according to the Babylonian Chronicle, Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar led his troops into Syria and began raiding southern Palestine. In 593 BC, the Ammonites met in Jerusalem with King Zedekiah of Judah and representatives from Edom, Moab, Tyre, and Sidon in a conspiracy to rebel against Babylon (Jeremiah 27:1-3). The prophet Jeremiah warned them that God would cause their plan to fail (Jeremiah 27:4-22). Nebuchadnezzar sent an army to crush the rebellion and attacked Jerusalem, which he destroyed after a lengthy and bitter siege (586 BC), deporting many Jews to Babylonia. Ammon was not immediately invaded, however, and many Judeans sought refuge there (Jeremiah 40:11), including a man named Ishmael (Jeremiah 40:13-16). Ishmael plotted with Baalis, king of Ammon, to assassinate Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had appointed governor over Judea (which was itself now reduced to a province of Babylonia). After the assassination, Ishmael escaped to Ammon (Jeremiah 41:1-15). Nebuchadnezzar then sent troops that sacked Rabbah and took captive many of the Ammonites. Though the city was not destroyed, the countryside was ruined. In the third century BC, Arab invaders poured in and destroyed what remained, thus marking the end of Ammon’s time as a semi-independent state.