The Ammonites are a people descended from Ben-Ammi, one of Lot's two sons. (The other son was Moab, and his descendants are the Moabites.) ### Ancestor When Lot, the nephew of Abraham, escaped from Sodom with his two daughters, his wife became a pillar of salt, leaving only the three family members. Concerned that they would not be able to marry and have descendants, Lot's two daughters, in turn, made their father Lot drunk and lay with him to bear children. These children were Moab and Ben-Ammi. Among them, Ben-Ammi became the progenitor of the Ammonites.
Genesis 19:30The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.Genesis 19:31Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.”Genesis 19:32They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose.Genesis 19:33It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.”Genesis 19:34They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up.Genesis 19:35Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father.Genesis 19:36The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.Genesis 19:37The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.Genesis 19:38The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.
이들이 거주하던 지역은 아르논 강에서 얍복강 까지이며, 중심도시는 랍바이다. 로마시대에는 필라델피아로 불리웠으며, 현재 요르단의 수도인 암만이다.
1 Samuel 11:2The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days, that we may send messengers to all the borders of Israel; and then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you.”
Amos 1:13But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it will devour its palaces, with shouting in the day of battle, with a storm in the day of the whirlwind;
이들은 몰록 신을 섬겼으며, 솔로몬은 암몬 사람 왕비를 위해 몰록 신 산당을 짔기도 했는데, 이 여인이 바로 나아마이며, 르호보암의 어머니다.
1 Kings 11:7So he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
1 Kings 14:21Judah did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, above all that their fathers had done.
시조가 아브라함의 조카 롯으로부터 시작되다보니, 히브리 백성의 형제 관계로 인식되었다.
Deuteronomy 2:16Yahweh spoke to me, saying,Deuteronomy 2:17“You are to pass over Ar, the border of Moab, today.Deuteronomy 2:18When you come near the border of the children of Ammon, don’t bother them, nor contend with them; for I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon for a possession, because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession.”Deuteronomy 2:19(That also is considered a land of Rephaim). Rephaim lived there in the past, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim,
Deuteronomy 23:4Nevertheless Yahweh your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam, but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you.
이들은 지속적으로 이스라엘을 괴롭혔다. 사사시대에 이들은 모압 족속의 에글론왕과 동맹을 맺고 여러차례 이스라엘을 공격하였으며, 사사 에훗에 의해 탈환되기 전까지 여리고를 18년 동안 점령하기도 하였다.
Judges 3:12He gathered the children of Ammon and Amalek to himself; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of palm trees.Judges 3:13The children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.Judges 3:14But when the children of Israel) cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. The children of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.Judges 3:15Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length; and he wore it under his clothing on his right thigh.Judges 3:16He offered the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man.Judges 3:17When Ehud had finished offering the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute.Judges 3:18But he himself turned back from the stone idols that were by Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” The king said, “Keep silence!” All who stood by him left him.Judges 3:19Ehud came to him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. Ehud said, “I have a message from God to you.” He arose out of his seat.Judges 3:20Ehud put out his left hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body.Judges 3:21The handle also went in after the blade; and the fat closed on the blade, for he didn’t draw the sword out of his body; and it came out behind.Judges 3:22Then Ehud went out onto the porch, and shut the doors of the upper room on him, and locked them.Judges 3:23After he had gone, his servants came and saw that the doors of the upper room were locked. They said, “Surely he is covering his feet in the upper room.”Judges 3:24They waited until they were ashamed; and behold, he didn’t open the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them, and behold, their lord had fallen down dead on the floor.Judges 3:25Ehud escaped while they waited, passed beyond the stone idols, and escaped to Seirah.Judges 3:26When he had come, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he led them.Judges 3:27He said to them, “Follow me; for Yahweh has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” They followed him, and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and didn’t allow any man to pass over.Judges 3:28They struck at that time about ten thousand men of Moab, every strong man and every man of valor. No man escaped.Judges 3:29So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. Then the land had rest eighty years.Judges 3:30After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad. He also saved Israel.
이들은 다시 사사 입다 시기에 공격했으며, 사울왕 이후에도 지속적으로 이스라엘을 괴롭혔기 때문에 여러 선지서에서도 하나님은 특별히 암몬 족속에 대한 심판을 계속해서 말씀하신다.