Jeremiah 25:9

25:9 So I, the Lord, affirm that ¹  I will send for all the peoples of the north ²  and my servant, ³  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and all the nations that surround it. I will utterly destroy ⁴  this land, its inhabitants, and all the nations that surround it ⁵  and make them everlasting ruins. ⁶  I will make them objects of horror and hissing scorn. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 25:21

25:21 all the people of Edom, ⁸  Moab, ⁹  Ammon; ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 27:3

27:3 Use it to send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, ¹¹  and Sidon. ¹²  Send them through ¹³  the envoys who have come to Jerusalem ¹⁴  to King Zedekiah of Judah.

Genesis 19:38

19:38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-Ammi. ¹⁵  He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today.

Deuteronomy 2:19

2:19 But when you come close to the Ammonites, do not harass or provoke them because I am not giving you any of the Ammonites’ land as your possession; I have already given it to Lot’s descendants ¹⁶  as their possession.

Deuteronomy 23:3

23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite ¹⁷  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever ¹⁸  do so, ¹⁹ 

Deuteronomy 23:2

23:2 A person of illegitimate birth ²⁰  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation no one related to him may do so. ²¹ 

Deuteronomy 20:1

Laws Concerning War with Distant Enemies

20:1 When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry ²²  and troops ²³  who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

Deuteronomy 20:1

Laws Concerning War with Distant Enemies

20:1 When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry ²⁴  and troops ²⁵  who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

Psalms 83:7

83:7 Gebal, ²⁶  Ammon, and Amalek,

Philistia and the inhabitants of Tyre. ²⁷ 

Ezekiel 21:28-32

21:28 “As for you, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says concerning the Ammonites and their coming humiliation; ²⁸  say:

“‘A sword, a sword drawn for slaughter,

polished to consume, ²⁹  to flash like lightning –

21:29 while seeing false visions for you

and reading lying omens for you ³⁰  –

to place that sword ³¹  on the necks of the profane wicked, ³² 

whose day has come,

the time of final punishment.

21:30 Return it to its sheath! ³³ 

In the place where you were created, ³⁴ 

in your native land, I will judge you.

21:31 I will pour out my anger on you;

the fire of my fury I will blow on you.

I will hand you over to brutal men,

who are skilled in destruction.

21:32 You will become fuel for the fire –

your blood will stain the middle of the land; ³⁵ 

you will no longer be remembered,

for I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

Ezekiel 25:2-10

25:2 “Son of man, turn toward ³⁶  the Ammonites ³⁷  and prophesy against them. 25:3 Say to the Ammonites, ‘Hear the word of the sovereign Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says: You said “Aha!” about my sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and about the house of Judah when they went into exile. 25:4 So take note, ³⁸  I am about to make you slaves of ³⁹  the tribes ⁴⁰  of the east. They will make camps among you and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk. 25:5 I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and Ammon ⁴¹  a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 25:6 For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you clapped your hands, stamped your feet, and rejoiced with intense scorn ⁴²  over the land of Israel, 25:7 take note, I have stretched out my hand against you, and I will hand you over as plunder ⁴³  to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples and make you perish from the lands. I will destroy you; then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

A Prophecy Against Moab

25:8 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Moab ⁴⁴  and Seir say, “Look, the house of Judah is like all the other nations.” 25:9 So look, I am about to open up Moab’s flank, ⁴⁵  eliminating the cities, ⁴⁶  including its frontier cities, ⁴⁷  the beauty of the land – Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim. 25:10 I will hand it over, ⁴⁸  along with the Ammonites, ⁴⁹  to the tribes ⁵⁰  of the east, so that the Ammonites will no longer be remembered among the nations.

Amos 1:13-15

1:13 This is what the Lord says:

“Because the Ammonites have committed three crimes ⁵¹  –

make that four! ⁵²  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ⁵³ 

They ripped open Gilead’s pregnant women ⁵⁴ 

so they could expand their territory.

1:14 So I will set fire to Rabbah’s ⁵⁵  city wall; ⁵⁶ 

fire ⁵⁷  will consume her fortresses.

War cries will be heard on the day of battle; ⁵⁸ 

a strong gale will blow on the day of the windstorm. ⁵⁹ 

1:15 Ammon’s ⁶⁰  king will be deported; ⁶¹ 

he and his officials ⁶²  will be carried off ⁶³  together.”

The Lord has spoken!

Zephaniah 2:8-11

2:8 “I have heard Moab’s taunts

and the Ammonites’ insults.

They ⁶⁴  taunted my people

and verbally harassed those living in Judah. ⁶⁵ 

2:9 Therefore, as surely as I live,” says the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel,

“be certain that Moab will become like Sodom

and the Ammonites like Gomorrah.

They will be overrun by weeds, ⁶⁶ 

filled with salt pits, ⁶⁷ 

and permanently desolate.

Those of my people who are left ⁶⁸  will plunder their belongings; ⁶⁹ 

those who are left in Judah ⁷⁰  will take possession of their land.”

2:10 This is how they will be repaid for their arrogance, ⁷¹ 

for they taunted and verbally harassed ⁷²  the people of the Lord who commands armies.

2:11 The Lord will terrify them, ⁷³ 

for ⁷⁴  he will weaken ⁷⁵  all the gods of the earth.

All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. ⁷⁶ 

[25:9]  ¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[25:9]  ² sn The many allusions to trouble coming from the north are now clarified: it is the armies of Babylon which included within it contingents from many nations. See 1:14, 15; 4:6; 6:1, 22; 10:22; 13:20 for earlier allusions.

[25:9]  ³ sn Nebuchadnezzar is called the Lord’s servant also in Jer 27:6; 43:10. He was the Lord’s servant in that he was the agent used by the Lord to punish his disobedient people. Assyria was earlier referred to as the Lord’s “rod” (Isa 10:5-6) and Cyrus is called his “shepherd” and his “anointed” (Isa 44:28; 45:1). P. C. Craigie, P. H. Kelley, and J. F. Drinkard (Jeremiah 1-25 [WBC], 364) make the interesting observation that the terms here are very similar to the terms in v. 4. The people of Judah ignored the servants, the prophets, he sent to turn them away from evil. So he will send other servants whom they cannot ignore.

[25:9]  ⁴ tn The word used here was used in the early years of Israel’s conquest for the action of killing all the men, women, and children in the cities of Canaan, destroying all their livestock, and burning their cities down. This policy was intended to prevent Israel from being corrupted by paganism (Deut 7:2; 20:17-18; Josh 6:18, 21). It was to be extended to any city that led Israel away from worshiping God (Deut 13:15) and any Israelite who brought an idol into his house (Deut 7:26). Here the policy is being directed against Judah as well as against her neighbors because of her persistent failure to heed God’s warnings through the prophets. For further usage of this term in application to foreign nations in the book of Jeremiah see 50:21, 26; 51:3.

[25:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “will utterly destroy them.” The referent (this land, its inhabitants, and the nations surrounding it) has been specified in the translation for clarity, since the previous “them” referred to Nebuchadnezzar and his armies.

[25:9]  ⁶ sn The Hebrew word translated “everlasting” is the word often translated “eternal.” However, it sometimes has a more limited time reference. For example it refers to the lifetime of a person who became a “lasting slave” to another person (see Exod 21:6; Deut 15:17). It is also used to refer to the long life wished for a king (1 Kgs 1:31; Neh 2:3). The time frame here is to be qualified at least with reference to Judah and Jerusalem as seventy years (see 29:10-14 and compare v. 12).

[25:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will make them an object of horror and a hissing and everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been broken up to separate the last object from the first two which are of slightly different connotation, i.e., they denote the reaction to the latter.

[25:21]  ⁸ sn See further Jer 49:7-22 for the judgment against Edom. Edom, Moab, and Ammon were east of Judah.

[25:21]  ⁹ sn See further Jer 48:1-47 for the judgment against Moab.

[25:21]  ¹⁰ sn See further Jer 49:1-6 for the judgment against Ammon.

[27:3]  ¹¹ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[27:3]  ¹² sn The nations of Edom, Moab, and Ammon were east of Judah. They were sometimes allies and sometimes enemies. The nations of Tyre and Sidon were on the sea coast north and west of Judah. They are best known for their maritime trade during the reign of Solomon. They were more commonly allies of Israel and Judah than enemies.

[27:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “send by means of them” [i.e., the straps and crossbars made into a yoke] to…through.” The text is broken up in conformity with contemporary English style. Many English versions ignore the suffix on the end of “send” and find some support for this on the basis of its absence in the Lucianic Greek text. However, it is probably functioning metonymically here for the message which they see symbolized before them and is now explained clearly to them.

[27:3]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[19:38]  ¹⁵ sn The name Ben-Ammi means “son of my people.” Like the account of Moab’s birth, this story is probably included in the narrative to portray the Ammonites, another perennial enemy of Israel, in a negative light.

[2:19]  ¹⁶ sn Lot’s descendants. See note on this phrase in Deut 2:9.

[23:3]  ¹⁷ sn An Ammonite or Moabite. These descendants of Lot by his two daughters (cf. Gen 19:30-38) were thereby the products of incest and therefore excluded from the worshiping community. However, these two nations also failed to show proper hospitality to Israel on their way to Canaan (v. 4).

[23:3]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “ever” (עַד־עוֹלָם, ’ad-’olam) suggests that “tenth generation” (vv. 2, 3) also means “forever.” However, in the OT sense “forever” means not “for eternity” but for an indeterminate future time. See A. Tomasino, NIDOTTE 3:346.

[23:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “enter the assembly of the Lord.” The phrase “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[23:2]  ²⁰ tn Or “a person born of an illegitimate marriage.”

[23:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “enter the assembly of the Lord.” The phrase “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[20:1]  ²² tn Heb “horse and chariot.”

[20:1]  ²³ tn Heb “people.”

[20:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “horse and chariot.”

[20:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “people.”

[83:7]  ²⁶ sn Some identify Gebal with the Phoenician coastal city of Byblos (see Ezek 27:9, where the name is spelled differently), though others locate this site south of the Dead Sea (see BDB 148 s.v. גְּבַל; HALOT 174 s.v. גְּבַל).

[83:7]  ²⁷ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[21:28]  ²⁸ tn Heb “their reproach.”

[21:28]  ²⁹ tn Heb “to contain, endure.” Since the Hebrew text as it stands makes little, if any, sense, most emend the text to read either “to consume” or “for destruction.” For discussion of options see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:693.

[21:29]  ³⁰ tn Heb “in the seeing concerning you falsehood, in divining concerning you a lie.” This probably refers to the attempts of the Ammonites to ward off judgment through prophetic visions and divination.

[21:29]  ³¹ tn Heb “you”; the referent (the sword mentioned in v. 28) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:29]  ³² sn The second half of the verse appears to state that the sword of judgment would fall upon the wicked, despite their efforts to prevent it.

[21:30]  ³³ sn Once the Babylonian king’s sword (vv. 19-20) has carried out its assigned task, the Lord commands it to halt and announces that Babylon itself will also experience his judgment. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:28.

[21:30]  ³⁴ tn In the Hebrew text of vv. 30-32 the second person verbal and pronominal forms are feminine singular. This may indicate that the personified Babylonian sword is being addressed. The Hebrew word for “sword” (see v. 28) is feminine. However, it may refer to the Ammonites.

[21:32]  ³⁵ tn Heb “your blood will be in the middle of the land.”

[25:2]  ³⁶ tn Heb “set your face toward.”

[25:2]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the sons of Ammon.” Ammon was located to the east of Israel.

[25:4]  ³⁸ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates being aware of or taking notice of something and has been translated here with a verb (so also throughout the chapter).

[25:4]  ³⁹ tn Heb “Look I am about to give you for a possession to.”

[25:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “sons.”

[25:5]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the sons of Ammon.”

[25:6]  ⁴² tn Heb “with all your scorn in (the) soul.”

[25:7]  ⁴³ tc The translation here follows the marginal reading (Qere) of the Hebrew text. The consonantal text (Kethib) is meaningless.

[25:8]  ⁴⁴ sn Moab was located immediately south of Ammon.

[25:9]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “shoulder.”

[25:9]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “from the cities.” The verb “eliminating” has been added in the translation to reflect the privative use of the preposition (see BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7.b).

[25:9]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “from its cities, from its end.”

[25:10]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “I will give it for a possession.”

[25:10]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “the sons of Ammon” (twice in this verse).

[25:10]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “the sons.”

[1:13]  ⁵¹ tn Traditionally, “transgressions” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV) or “sins” (NIV). For an explanation of the atrocities outlined in this oracle as treaty violations of God’s mandate to Noah in Gen 9:5-7, see the note on the word “violations” in 1:3.

[1:13]  ⁵² tn Heb “Because of three violations of the Ammonites, even because of four.”
On the three…four style that introduces each of the judgment oracles of chaps. 1-2 see the note on the word “four” in 1:3.

[1:13]  ⁵³ tn Heb “I will not bring it [or “him”] back.” The translation understands the pronominal object to refer to the decree of judgment that follows; the referent (the decree) has been specified in the translation for clarity. For another option see the note on the word “judgment” in 1:3.

[1:13]  ⁵⁴ sn The Ammonites ripped open Gilead’s pregnant women in conjunction with a military invasion designed to expand their territory. Such atrocities, although repugnant, were not uncommon in ancient Near Eastern warfare.

[1:14]  ⁵⁵ sn Rabbah was the Ammonite capital.

[1:14]  ⁵⁶ sn The city wall symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.

[1:14]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:14]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “with a war cry in the day of battle.”

[1:14]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “with wind in the day of the windstorm.”

[1:15]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “their”; the referent (Ammon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:15]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “will go into exile.”

[1:15]  ⁶² tn Or “princes” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NLT); TEV “officers”; CEV “leaders.”

[1:15]  ⁶³ tn The words “will be carried off” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:8]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[2:8]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “and they made great [their mouth?] against their territory.” Other possible translation options include (1) “they enlarged their own territory” (cf. NEB) and (2) “they bragged about [the size] of their own territory.”

[2:9]  ⁶⁶ tn The Hebrew text reads מִמְשַׁק חָרוּל (mimshaq kharul, “[?] of weeds”). The meaning of the first word is unknown. The present translation (“They will be overrun by weeds”) is speculative, based on the general sense of the context. For a defense of “overrun” on linguistic grounds, see R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (WEC), 347. Cf. NEB “a pile of weeds”; NIV “a place of weeds”; NRSV “a land possessed by nettles.”

[2:9]  ⁶⁷ tn The Hebrew text reads וּמִכְרֵה־מֶלַח (umikhreh-melakh, “and a [?] of salt”). The meaning of the first word is unclear, though “pit” (NASB, NIV, NRSV; NKJV “saltpit”), “mine,” and “heap” (cf. NEB “a rotting heap of saltwort”) are all options. The words “filled with” are supplied for clarification.

[2:9]  ⁶⁸ tn Or “The remnant of my people.”

[2:9]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “them.” The actual object of the plundering, “their belongings,” has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:9]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “[the] nation.” For clarity the “nation” has been specified as “Judah” in the translation.

[2:10]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “this is for them in place of their arrogance.”

[2:10]  ⁷² tn Heb “made great [their mouth?] against” (cf. the last phrase of v. 8).

[2:11]  ⁷³ tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”

[2:11]  ⁷⁴ tn Or “certainly.”

[2:11]  ⁷⁵ tn The meaning of this rare Hebrew word is unclear. If the meaning is indeed “weaken,” then this line may be referring to the reduction of these gods’ territory through conquest (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 110-11). Cf. NEB “reduce to beggary”; NASB “starve”; NIV “when he destroys”; NRSV “shrivel.”

[2:11]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “and all the coastlands of the nations will worship [or, “bow down”] to him, each from his own place.”