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Selected Verse: Amos 1:13 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Am 1:13	Strong Concordance	Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068]; For three [07969] transgressions [06588] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983], and for four [0702], I will not turn away [07725] the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up [01234] the women with child [02030] of Gilead [01568], that they might enlarge [07337] their border [01366]:
	King James	Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
Ammon--The Ammonites under Nahash attacked Jabesh-gilead and refused to accept the offer of the latter to save them, unless the Jabesh-gileadites would put out all their right eyes (Sa1 11:1, &c.). Saul rescued Jabesh-gilead. The Ammonites joined the Chaldeans in their invasion of Judea for the sake of plunder. ripped up . . . women with-child--as Hazael of Syria also did (Kg2 8:12; compare Hos 13:16). Ammon's object in this cruel act was to leave Israel without "heir," so as to seize on Israel's inheritance (Jer 49:1).

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

Ammon--The Ammonites under Nahash attacked Jabesh-gilead and refused to accept the offer of the latter to save them, unless the Jabesh-gileadites would put out all their right eyes (Sa1 11:1, &c.). Saul rescued Jabesh-gilead. The Ammonites joined the Chaldeans in their invasion of Judea for the sake of plunder.

ripped up . . . women with-child--as Hazael of Syria also did (Kg2 8:12; compare Hos 13:16). Ammon's object in this cruel act was to leave Israel without "heir," so as to seize on Israel's inheritance (Jer 49:1).

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Ammon - These who receive their existence under circumstances, in any way like those of the first forefathers of Moab and Ammon, are known to be under physical as well as intellectual and moral disadvantages. Apart from the worst horrors, on the one side reason was stupefied, on the other it was active in sin. He who imprinted His laws on nature, has annexed the penalty to the infraction of those laws. It is known also how, even under the Gospel, the main character of a nation remains unchanged. The basis of natural character, upon which grace has to act, remains, under certain limits, the same. Still more in the unchanging east. Slave-dealers know of certain hereditary good or evil qualities in non-Christian nations in whom they traffic. What marvel then that Ammon and Moab retained the stamp of their origin, in a sensual or passionate nature? Their choice of their idols grew out of this original character and aggravated it. They chose them gods like themselves, and worsened themselves by copying these idols of their sinful nature. The chief god of the fierce Ammon was Milehem or Molech, the principle of destruction, who was appeased with sacrifices of living children, given to the fire to devour. Moab, beside its idol Chemosh, had the degrading worship of Baal Peor Num 25:1-3, reproductiveness the counterpart of destruction. And, so. in fierce or degrading rites, they worshiped the power which belongs to God, to create, or to destroy. Moab was the seducer of Israel at Shittim Num 25:1-3. Ammon, it has been noticed, showed at different times a special wanton ferocity . Such was the proposal of Nahash to the men of Jabesh-Gilead, when offering to surrender, "that I may thrust out all your right eyes and lay it for a reproach unto all Israel" Sa1 11:1-3. Such was the insult to David's messengers of peace, and the hiring of the Syrians in an aggressive war against David Sa2 10:1-6. Such, again, was this war of extermination against the Gileadites. On Israel's side, the relation to Moab and Ammon had been altogether friendly. God recalled to Israel the memory of their common descent, and forbade them to war against either. He speaks of them by the name of kindness, "the children of Lot," the companion and friend of Abraham. "I will not give thee of their land for a possession, because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession" Deu 2:9, Deu 2:19. Akin by descent, their history had been alike. Each had driven out a giant tribe; Moab, the Emim; Ammon, the Zamzummim Deu 2:10-11, Deu 2:20-21. They had thus possessed themselves of the tract from the Arnon, not quite half way down the Dead Sea on its east side, to the Jabbok, about half-way between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee . Both had been expelled by the Amorites, and had been driven, Moab, behind the Arnon, Ammon, behind the "strong border" Num 21:24 of the upper part of the Jabbok, what is now the Nahr Amman, "the river of Ammon," eastward. The whole of what became the inheritance of the 2 12 tribes, was in the hands of the Amorites, and threatened very nearly their remaining possessions; since, at "Aroer that is before Rabbah" Jos 13:25, the Amorites were already over against the capital of Ammon; at the Arnon they were but 2 12 hours from Ar-Moab, the remaining capital of Moab. Israel then, in destroying the Amorites, had been at once avenging and rescuing Moab and Ammon; and it is so far a token of friendliness at this time, that, after the victory at Edrei, the great "iron bedstead" of Og was placed in "Rabbah of the children of Ammon" Deu 3:11. Envy, jealousy, and fear, united them to "hire Balaam to curse Israel" Deu 23:4, although the king of Moab was the chief actor in this Num. 22-24, as he was in the seduction of Israel to idoltary Num 25:1-3. Probably Moab was then, and continued to be, the more influential or the more powerful, since in their first invasion of Israel, the Ammonites came as the allies of Eglon king of Moab. "He gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek Jdg 3:13. And" they "served Eglon." Yet Ammon's subsequent oppression must have been yet more grievous, since God reminds Israel of His delivering them from the Ammonites Jdg 10:11, not from Moab. There we find Ammon under a king, and in league with the Philistines Jdg 10:7, "crashing and crushing for 18 years all the children of Israel in Gilead." The Ammonites carried a wide invasion across the Jordan against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim Jdg 10:9, until they were subdued by Jephthah. Moab is not named; but the king of Ammon claims as my land Jdg 11:13, the whole which Moab and Ammon had lost to the Amorites and they to Israel, "from Arnon unto Jabbok and unto Jordan" Jdg 11:13. The range also of Jephthah's victories included probably all that same country from the Arnon to the neighborhood of Rabbah of Ammon . The Ammonites, subdued then, were again on the offensive in the fierce siege of Jabesh-Gilead and against Saul (see above the note at Amo 1:11). Yet it seems that they had already taken from Israel what they had lost to the Amorites, for Jabesh-Gilead was beyond the Jabbok ; and "Mizpeh of Moab," where David went to seek the king of Moab Sa1 22:3, was probably no other than the Ramoth-Mizpeh Jos 13:26 of Gad, the Mizpeh Jdg 11:29 from where Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites. With Hanan, king of Ammon, David sought to remain at peace, on account of some kindness, interested as it probably was, which his father Nahash had shown him, when persecuted by Saul Sa2 10:2. It was only after repeated attempts to bring an overwhelming force of the Syriains against David, that Rabbah was besieged and taken, and that awful punishment inflicted. The severity of the punishment inflicted on Moab and Ammon, in that two-thirds of the fighting men of Moab were put to death Sa2 8:2, and fighting men of "the cities of Ammon" Sa2 12:31 were destroyed by a ghastly death, so different from David's treatment of the Philistines or the various Syrians, implies some extreme hostility on their part, from which there was no safety except in their destruction. Moab and Ammon were still united against Jehoshaphat 2 Chr. 20, and with Nebuchadnezzar against Jehoiakim Kg2 24:2, whom they had before sought to stir up against the king of Babylon Jer 27:3. Both profited for a time by the distresses of Israel, "magnifying" themselves "against her border" Zep 2:8, and taking possession of her cities after the 2 12 tribes has been carried away by Tiglath-pileser. Both united in insulting Judah, and (as it appears from Ezekiel Eze 25:2-8), out of jealousy against its religious distinction. When some of the scattered Jews were reunited under Gedaliah, after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, it was a king of Ammon, Baalis, who instigated Johanan to murder him Jer 40:11-14; Jer 41:10. When Jerusalem was to be rebuilt after the return from the captivity, Ammonites and Moabites Neh 2:10, Neh 2:19; Neh 4:1-3, "Sanballat the Horonite" (that is, out of Horonaim, which Moab had taken to itself Isa 15:5; Jer 48:3, Jer 48:5, Jer 48:34.) "and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite," were chief in the opposition to it. They helped on the persecution by Antiochus (1 Macc. 5:6). Their anti-religious character, which showed itself in the hatred of Israel and the hire of Balaam, was the ground of the exclusion of both from admission "into the congregation of the Lord forever" Deu 23:3. The seduction of Solomon by his Ammonite and Moabite wives illustrates the infectiousness of their idolatry. While he made private chapels "for all his strange wives, to burn incense and sacrifice to their gods" Kg1 11:8, the most stately idolatry was that of Chemosh and Molech, the abomination of Moab and Ammon . For Ashtoreth alone, besides these, did Solomon build high places in sight of the temple of God, on a lower part of the Mount of Olives Kg2 23:13. They have ripped up the women with child in Gilead - Since Elisha prophesied that Hazael would be guilty of this same atrocity, and since Gilead was the scene of his chief atrocities , probably Syria and Ammon were, as of old, united against Israel in a war of extermination. It was a conspiracy to displace God's people from the land which He had given them, and themselves to replace them. The plan was effective; it was, Amos says, executed. They expelled and "inherited Gad" Jer 49:1. Gilead was desolated for the sins for which Hosea rebuked it; "blood had blood." It had been "tracked with blood" (see the note at Hos 6:8); now life was sought out for destruction, even in the mother's womb. But, in the end, Israel, whose extermination Ammon devised and in part effected, survived. Ammon perished and left no memorial. That they might enlarge their border - It was a horror, then, exercised, not incidentally here and there, or upon a few, or in sudden stress of passion, but upon system and in cold blood. We have seen lately, in the massacres near Lebanon, where male children were murdered on system, how methodically such savageness goes to work. A massacre, here and there, would not have "enlarged their border." They must haw carried on these horrors then, throughout all the lands which they wished to possess, making place for themselves by annihilating Israel, that there might be none to rise up and thrust them from their conquests, and claim their old inheritance. Such was the fruit of habitually indulged covetousness. Yet who beforehand would have thought it possible?

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

Ammon - These who receive their existence under circumstances, in any way like those of the first forefathers of Moab and Ammon, are known to be under physical as well as intellectual and moral disadvantages. Apart from the worst horrors, on the one side reason was stupefied, on the other it was active in sin. He who imprinted His laws on nature, has annexed the penalty to the infraction of those laws. It is known also how, even under the Gospel, the main character of a nation remains unchanged. The basis of natural character, upon which grace has to act, remains, under certain limits, the same. Still more in the unchanging east. Slave-dealers know of certain hereditary good or evil qualities in non-Christian nations in whom they traffic. What marvel then that Ammon and Moab retained the stamp of their origin, in a sensual or passionate nature? Their choice of their idols grew out of this original character and aggravated it.

They chose them gods like themselves, and worsened themselves by copying these idols of their sinful nature. The chief god of the fierce Ammon was Milehem or Molech, the principle of destruction, who was appeased with sacrifices of living children, given to the fire to devour. Moab, beside its idol Chemosh, had the degrading worship of Baal Peor Num 25:1-3, reproductiveness the counterpart of destruction. And, so. in fierce or degrading rites, they worshiped the power which belongs to God, to create, or to destroy. Moab was the seducer of Israel at Shittim Num 25:1-3. Ammon, it has been noticed, showed at different times a special wanton ferocity . Such was the proposal of Nahash to the men of Jabesh-Gilead, when offering to surrender, "that I may thrust out all your right eyes and lay it for a reproach unto all Israel" Sa1 11:1-3.

Such was the insult to David's messengers of peace, and the hiring of the Syrians in an aggressive war against David Sa2 10:1-6. Such, again, was this war of extermination against the Gileadites. On Israel's side, the relation to Moab and Ammon had been altogether friendly. God recalled to Israel the memory of their common descent, and forbade them to war against either. He speaks of them by the name of kindness, "the children of Lot," the companion and friend of Abraham. "I will not give thee of their land for a possession, because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession" Deu 2:9, Deu 2:19. Akin by descent, their history had been alike. Each had driven out a giant tribe; Moab, the Emim; Ammon, the Zamzummim Deu 2:10-11, Deu 2:20-21. They had thus possessed themselves of the tract from the Arnon, not quite half way down the Dead Sea on its east side, to the Jabbok, about half-way between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee . Both had been expelled by the Amorites, and had been driven, Moab, behind the Arnon, Ammon, behind the "strong border" Num 21:24 of the upper part of the Jabbok, what is now the Nahr Amman, "the river of Ammon," eastward.

The whole of what became the inheritance of the 2 12 tribes, was in the hands of the Amorites, and threatened very nearly their remaining possessions; since, at "Aroer that is before Rabbah" Jos 13:25, the Amorites were already over against the capital of Ammon; at the Arnon they were but 2 12 hours from Ar-Moab, the remaining capital of Moab. Israel then, in destroying the Amorites, had been at once avenging and rescuing Moab and Ammon; and it is so far a token of friendliness at this time, that, after the victory at Edrei, the great "iron bedstead" of Og was placed in "Rabbah of the children of Ammon" Deu 3:11. Envy, jealousy, and fear, united them to "hire Balaam to curse Israel" Deu 23:4, although the king of Moab was the chief actor in this Num. 22-24, as he was in the seduction of Israel to idoltary Num 25:1-3. Probably Moab was then, and continued to be, the more influential or the more powerful, since in their first invasion of Israel, the Ammonites came as the allies of Eglon king of Moab. "He gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek Jdg 3:13. And" they "served Eglon." Yet Ammon's subsequent oppression must have been yet more grievous, since God reminds Israel of His delivering them from the Ammonites Jdg 10:11, not from Moab. There we find Ammon under a king, and in league with the Philistines Jdg 10:7, "crashing and crushing for 18 years all the children of Israel in Gilead." The Ammonites carried a wide invasion across the Jordan against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim Jdg 10:9, until they were subdued by Jephthah. Moab is not named; but the king of Ammon claims as my land Jdg 11:13, the whole which Moab and Ammon had lost to the Amorites and they to Israel, "from Arnon unto Jabbok and unto Jordan" Jdg 11:13.

The range also of Jephthah's victories included probably all that same country from the Arnon to the neighborhood of Rabbah of Ammon . The Ammonites, subdued then, were again on the offensive in the fierce siege of Jabesh-Gilead and against Saul (see above the note at Amo 1:11). Yet it seems that they had already taken from Israel what they had lost to the Amorites, for Jabesh-Gilead was beyond the Jabbok ; and "Mizpeh of Moab," where David went to seek the king of Moab Sa1 22:3, was probably no other than the Ramoth-Mizpeh Jos 13:26 of Gad, the Mizpeh Jdg 11:29 from where Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites. With Hanan, king of Ammon, David sought to remain at peace, on account of some kindness, interested as it probably was, which his father Nahash had shown him, when persecuted by Saul Sa2 10:2.

It was only after repeated attempts to bring an overwhelming force of the Syriains against David, that Rabbah was besieged and taken, and that awful punishment inflicted. The severity of the punishment inflicted on Moab and Ammon, in that two-thirds of the fighting men of Moab were put to death Sa2 8:2, and fighting men of "the cities of Ammon" Sa2 12:31 were destroyed by a ghastly death, so different from David's treatment of the Philistines or the various Syrians, implies some extreme hostility on their part, from which there was no safety except in their destruction. Moab and Ammon were still united against Jehoshaphat 2 Chr. 20, and with Nebuchadnezzar against Jehoiakim Kg2 24:2, whom they had before sought to stir up against the king of Babylon Jer 27:3. Both profited for a time by the distresses of Israel, "magnifying" themselves "against her border" Zep 2:8, and taking possession of her cities after the 2 12 tribes has been carried away by Tiglath-pileser. Both united in insulting Judah, and (as it appears from Ezekiel Eze 25:2-8), out of jealousy against its religious distinction.

When some of the scattered Jews were reunited under Gedaliah, after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, it was a king of Ammon, Baalis, who instigated Johanan to murder him Jer 40:11-14; Jer 41:10. When Jerusalem was to be rebuilt after the return from the captivity, Ammonites and Moabites Neh 2:10, Neh 2:19; Neh 4:1-3, "Sanballat the Horonite" (that is, out of Horonaim, which Moab had taken to itself Isa 15:5; Jer 48:3, Jer 48:5, Jer 48:34.) "and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite," were chief in the opposition to it. They helped on the persecution by Antiochus (1 Macc. 5:6). Their anti-religious character, which showed itself in the hatred of Israel and the hire of Balaam, was the ground of the exclusion of both from admission "into the congregation of the Lord forever" Deu 23:3. The seduction of Solomon by his Ammonite and Moabite wives illustrates the infectiousness of their idolatry. While he made private chapels "for all his strange wives, to burn incense and sacrifice to their gods" Kg1 11:8, the most stately idolatry was that of Chemosh and Molech, the abomination of Moab and Ammon . For Ashtoreth alone, besides these, did Solomon build high places in sight of the temple of God, on a lower part of the Mount of Olives Kg2 23:13.

They have ripped up the women with child in Gilead - Since Elisha prophesied that Hazael would be guilty of this same atrocity, and since Gilead was the scene of his chief atrocities , probably Syria and Ammon were, as of old, united against Israel in a war of extermination. It was a conspiracy to displace God's people from the land which He had given them, and themselves to replace them. The plan was effective; it was, Amos says, executed. They expelled and "inherited Gad" Jer 49:1. Gilead was desolated for the sins for which Hosea rebuked it; "blood had blood." It had been "tracked with blood" (see the note at Hos 6:8); now life was sought out for destruction, even in the mother's womb. But, in the end, Israel, whose extermination Ammon devised and in part effected, survived. Ammon perished and left no memorial.

That they might enlarge their border - It was a horror, then, exercised, not incidentally here and there, or upon a few, or in sudden stress of passion, but upon system and in cold blood. We have seen lately, in the massacres near Lebanon, where male children were murdered on system, how methodically such savageness goes to work. A massacre, here and there, would not have "enlarged their border." They must haw carried on these horrors then, throughout all the lands which they wished to possess, making place for themselves by annihilating Israel, that there might be none to rise up and thrust them from their conquests, and claim their old inheritance. Such was the fruit of habitually indulged covetousness. Yet who beforehand would have thought it possible?

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
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 בּתרוּעה וגו, at the war-cry on the field of battle, i.e., an actual fact, when the enemy shall take the city by storm. בּסער וגו is a figurative expression applied to the storming of a city carried by assault, like בּסוּפה in Num 21:14. The reading מלכּם, "their (the Ammonites') king," is confirmed by the lxx and the Chaldee, and required by ושׂריו (cf. Amo 2:3), whereas Μαλχόμ, Melchom, which is found in Aq., Symm., Jerome, and the Syriac, rests upon a false interpretation.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Enlarge their border - By destroying all that dwelt in it, and hereafter might claim a title to it.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
The children of Ammon - The country of the Ammonites lay to the east of Jordan, in the neighborhood of Gilead. Rabbah was its capital. Because they have ripped up - This refers to some barbarous transaction well known in the time of this prophet, but of which we have no distinct mention in the sacred historians.

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¹ Concerning the Ammonites [01121] [05983], thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068]; Hath Israel [03478] no sons [01121]? hath he no heir [03423]? why then doth their king [04428] inherit [03423] Gad [01410], and his people [05971] dwell [03427] in his cities [05892]?

¹⁶ Samaria [08111] shall become desolate [0816]; for she hath rebelled [04784] against her God [0430]: they shall fall [05307] by the sword [02719]: their infants [05768] shall be dashed in pieces [07376], and their women with child [02030] shall be ripped up [01234].

¹² And Hazael [02371] said [0559], Why weepeth [01058] my lord [0113]? And he answered [0559], Because I know [03045] the evil [07451] that thou wilt do [06213] unto the children [01121] of Israel [03478]: their strong holds [04013] wilt thou set [07971] on fire [0784], and their young men [0970] wilt thou slay [02026] with the sword [02719], and wilt dash [07376] their children [05768], and rip up [01234] their women with child [02030].

⁸ Gilead [01568] is a city [07151] of them that work [06466] iniquity [0205], and is polluted [06121] with blood [01818].

¹³ And the high places [01116] that were before [06440] Jerusalem [03389], which were on the right hand [03225] of the mount [02022] of corruption [04889], which Solomon [08010] the king [04428] of Israel [03478] had builded [01129] for Ashtoreth [06253] the abomination [08251] of the Zidonians [06722], and for Chemosh [03645] the abomination [08251] of the Moabites [04124], and for Milcom [04445] the abomination [08441] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983], did the king [04428] defile [02930].

⁸ And likewise did [06213] he for all his strange [05237] wives [0802], which burnt incense [06999] and sacrificed [02076] unto their gods [0430].

³ An Ammonite [05984] or Moabite [04125] shall not enter [0935] into the congregation [06951] of the LORD [03068]; even to their tenth [06224] generation [01755] shall they not enter [0935] into the congregation [06951] of the LORD [03068] for [05704] ever [05769]:

³⁴ From the cry [02201] of Heshbon [02809] even unto Elealeh [0500], and even unto Jahaz [03096], have they uttered [05414] their voice [06963], from Zoar [06820] even unto Horonaim [02773], as an heifer [05697] of three years old [07992]: for the waters [04325] also of Nimrim [05249] shall be desolate [04923].

⁵ For in the going up [04608] of Luhith [03872] continual [01065] weeping [01065] shall go up [05927]; for in the going down [04174] of Horonaim [02773] the enemies [06862] have heard [08085] a cry [06818] of destruction [07667].

³ A voice [06963] of crying [06818] shall be from Horonaim [02773], spoiling [07701] and great [01419] destruction [07667].

⁵ My heart [03820] shall cry out [02199] for Moab [04124]; his fugitives [01280] shall flee unto Zoar [06820], an heifer [05697] of three years old [07992]: for by the mounting up [04608] of Luhith [03872] with weeping [01065] shall they go it up [05927]; for in the way [01870] of Horonaim [02773] they shall raise up [05782] a cry [02201] of destruction [07667].

¹ But it came to pass, that when Sanballat [05571] heard [08085] that we builded [01129] the wall [02346], he was wroth [02734], and took great [07235] indignation [03707], and mocked [03932] the Jews [03064].
² And he spake [0559] before [06440] his brethren [0251] and the army [02428] of Samaria [08111], and said [0559], What do [06213] these feeble [0537] Jews [03064]? will they fortify [05800] themselves? will they sacrifice [02076]? will they make an end [03615] in a day [03117]? will they revive [02421] the stones [068] out of the heaps [06194] of the rubbish [06083] which are burned [08313]?
³ Now Tobiah [02900] the Ammonite [05984] was by him [0681], and he said [0559], Even that which they build [01129], if a fox [07776] go up [05927], he shall even break down [06555] their stone [068] wall [02346].

¹⁹ But when Sanballat [05571] the Horonite [02772], and Tobiah [02900] the servant [05650], the Ammonite [05984], and Geshem [01654] the Arabian [06163], heard [08085] it, they laughed us to scorn [03932], and despised [0959] us, and said [0559], What is this thing [01697] that ye do [06213]? will ye rebel [04775] against the king [04428]?

¹⁰ When Sanballat [05571] the Horonite [02772], and Tobiah [02900] the servant [05650], the Ammonite [05984], heard [08085] of it, it grieved [03415] them exceedingly [07451] [01419] that there was come [0935] a man [0120] to seek [01245] the welfare [02896] of the children [01121] of Israel [03478].

¹⁰ Then Ishmael [03458] carried away captive [07617] all the residue [07611] of the people [05971] that were in Mizpah [04709], even the king's [04428] daughters [01323], and all the people [05971] that remained [07604] in Mizpah [04709], whom Nebuzaradan [05018] the captain [07227] of the guard [02876] had committed [06485] to Gedaliah [01436] the son [01121] of Ahikam [0296]: and Ishmael [03458] the son [01121] of Nethaniah [05418] carried them away captive [07617], and departed [03212] to go over [05674] to the Ammonites [01121] [05983].

¹¹ Likewise when all the Jews [03064] that were in Moab [04124], and among the Ammonites [05983], and in Edom [0123], and that were in all the countries [0776], heard [08085] that the king [04428] of Babylon [0894] had left [05414] a remnant [07611] of Judah [03063], and that he had set [06485] over them Gedaliah [01436] the son [01121] of Ahikam [0296] the son [01121] of Shaphan [08227];
¹² Even all the Jews [03064] returned out [07725] of all places [04725] whither they were driven [05080], and came [0935] to the land [0776] of Judah [03063], to Gedaliah [01436], unto Mizpah [04708], and gathered [0622] wine [03196] and summer fruits [07019] very [03966] much [07235].
¹³ Moreover Johanan [03110] the son [01121] of Kareah [07143], and all the captains [08269] of the forces [02428] that were in the fields [07704], came [0935] to Gedaliah [01436] to Mizpah [04708],
¹⁴ And said [0559] unto him, Dost thou certainly [03045] know [03045] that Baalis [01185] the king [04428] of the Ammonites [01121] [05983] hath sent [07971] Ishmael [03458] the son [01121] of Nethaniah [05418] to slay [05221] [05315] thee? But Gedaliah [01436] the son [01121] of Ahikam [0296] believed [0539] them not.

² Son [01121] of man [0120], set [07760] thy face [06440] against the Ammonites [01121] [05983], and prophesy [05012] against them;
³ And say [0559] unto the Ammonites [01121] [05983], Hear [08085] the word [01697] of the Lord [0136] GOD [03069]; Thus saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069]; Because thou saidst [0559], Aha [01889], against my sanctuary [04720], when it was profaned [02490]; and against the land [0127] of Israel [03478], when it was desolate [08074]; and against the house [01004] of Judah [03063], when they went [01980] into captivity [01473];
⁴ Behold, therefore I will deliver [05414] thee to the men [01121] of the east [06924] for a possession [04181], and they shall set [03427] their palaces [02918] in thee, and make [05414] their dwellings [04908] in thee: they shall eat [0398] thy fruit [06529], and they shall drink [08354] thy milk [02461].
⁵ And I will make [05414] Rabbah [07237] a stable [05116] for camels [01581], and the Ammonites [01121] [05983] a couchingplace [04769] for flocks [06629]: and ye shall know [03045] that I am the LORD [03068].
⁶ For thus saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069]; Because thou hast clapped [04222] thine hands [03027], and stamped [07554] with the feet [07272], and rejoiced [08055] in heart [05315] with all thy despite [07589] against the land [0127] of Israel [03478];
⁷ Behold, therefore I will stretch out [05186] mine hand [03027] upon thee, and will deliver [05414] thee for a spoil [0957] [0897] to the heathen [01471]; and I will cut thee off [03772] from the people [05971], and I will cause thee to perish [06] out of the countries [0776]: I will destroy [08045] thee; and thou shalt know [03045] that I am the LORD [03068].
⁸ Thus saith [0559] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069]; Because [03282] that Moab [04124] and Seir [08165] do say [0559], Behold, the house [01004] of Judah [03063] is like unto all the heathen [01471];

⁸ I have heard [08085] the reproach [02781] of Moab [04124], and the revilings [01421] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983], whereby they have reproached [02778] my people [05971], and magnified [01431] themselves against their border [01366].

³ And send [07971] them to the king [04428] of Edom [0123], and to the king [04428] of Moab [04124], and to the king [04428] of the Ammonites [01121] [05983], and to the king [04428] of Tyrus [06865], and to the king [04428] of Zidon [06721], by the hand [03027] of the messengers [04397] which come [0935] to Jerusalem [03389] unto Zedekiah [06667] king [04428] of Judah [03063];

² And the LORD [03068] sent [07971] against him bands [01416] of the Chaldees [03778], and bands [01416] of the Syrians [0758], and bands [01416] of the Moabites [04124], and bands [01416] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983], and sent [07971] them against Judah [03063] to destroy [06] it, according to the word [01697] of the LORD [03068], which he spake [01696] by [03027] his servants [05650] the prophets [05030].

³¹ And he brought forth [03318] the people [05971] that were therein, and put [07760] them under saws [04050], and under harrows [02757] of iron [01270], and under axes [04037] of iron [01270], and made them pass [05674] through the brickkiln [04404]: and thus did [06213] he unto all the cities [05892] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983]. So David [01732] and all the people [05971] returned [07725] unto Jerusalem [03389].

² And he smote [05221] Moab [04124], and measured [04058] them with a line [02256], casting them down [07901] to the ground [0776]; even with two [08147] lines [02256] measured [04058] he to put to death [04191], and with one full [04393] line [02256] to keep alive [02421]. And so the Moabites [04124] became David's [01732] servants [05650], and brought [05375] gifts [04503].

² Then said [0559] David [01732], I will shew [06213] kindness [02617] unto Hanun [02586] the son [01121] of Nahash [05176], as his father [01] shewed [06213] kindness [02617] unto me. And David [01732] sent [07971] to comfort [05162] him by the hand [03027] of his servants [05650] for his father [01]. And David's [01732] servants [05650] came [0935] into the land [0776] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983].

²⁹ Then the Spirit [07307] of the LORD [03068] came upon Jephthah [03316], and he passed over [05674] Gilead [01568], and Manasseh [04519], and passed over [05674] Mizpeh [04708] of Gilead [01568], and from Mizpeh [04708] of Gilead [01568] he passed over [05674] unto the children [01121] of Ammon [05983].

²⁶ And from Heshbon [02809] unto Ramathmizpeh [07434], and Betonim [0993]; and from Mahanaim [04266] unto the border [01366] of Debir [01688];

³ And David [01732] went [03212] thence to Mizpeh [04708] of Moab [04124]: and he said [0559] unto the king [04428] of Moab [04124], Let my father [01] and my mother [0517], I pray thee, come forth [03318], and be with you, till I know [03045] what God [0430] will do [06213] for me.

¹¹ Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068]; For three [07969] transgressions [06588] of Edom [0123], and for four [0702], I will not turn away [07725] the punishment thereof; because he did pursue [07291] his brother [0251] with the sword [02719], and did cast off [07843] all pity [07356], and his anger [0639] did tear [02963] perpetually [05703], and he kept [08104] his wrath [05678] for ever [05331]:

¹³ And the king [04428] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983] answered [0559] unto the messengers [04397] of Jephthah [03316], Because Israel [03478] took away [03947] my land [0776], when they came up [05927] out of Egypt [04714], from Arnon [0769] even unto Jabbok [02999], and unto Jordan [03383]: now therefore restore those lands again [07725] peaceably [07965].

⁹ Moreover the children [01121] of Ammon [05983] passed over [05674] Jordan [03383] to fight [03898] also against Judah [03063], and against Benjamin [01144], and against the house [01004] of Ephraim [0669]; so that Israel [03478] was sore [03966] distressed [03334].

⁷ And the anger [0639] of the LORD [03068] was hot [02734] against Israel [03478], and he sold [04376] them into the hands [03027] of the Philistines [06430], and into the hands [03027] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983].

¹¹ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto the children [01121] of Israel [03478], Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians [04714], and from the Amorites [0567], from the children [01121] of Ammon [05983], and from the Philistines [06430]?

¹³ And he gathered [0622] unto him the children [01121] of Ammon [05983] and Amalek [06002], and went [03212] and smote [05221] Israel [03478], and possessed [03423] the city [05892] of palm trees [08558] [05899].

¹ And Israel [03478] abode [03427] in Shittim [07851], and the people [05971] began [02490] to commit whoredom [02181] with the daughters [01323] of Moab [04124].
² And they called [07121] the people [05971] unto the sacrifices [02077] of their gods [0430]: and the people [05971] did eat [0398], and bowed down [07812] to their gods [0430].
³ And Israel [03478] joined [06775] himself unto Baalpeor [01187]: and the anger [0639] of the LORD [03068] was kindled [02734] against Israel [03478].

⁴ Because [01697] they met [06923] you not with bread [03899] and with water [04325] in the way [01870], when ye came forth [03318] out of Egypt [04714]; and because they hired [07936] against thee Balaam [01109] the son [01121] of Beor [01160] of Pethor [06604] of Mesopotamia [0763], to curse [07043] thee.

¹¹ For only Og [05747] king [04428] of Bashan [01316] remained [07604] of the remnant [03499] of giants [07497]; behold, his bedstead [06210] was a bedstead [06210] of iron [01270]; is it not [03808] in Rabbath [07237] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983]? nine [08672] cubits [0520] was the length [0753] thereof, and four [0702] cubits [0520] the breadth [07341] of it, after the cubit [0520] of a man [0376].

²⁵ And their coast [01366] was Jazer [03270], and all the cities [05892] of Gilead [01568], and half [02677] the land [0776] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983], unto Aroer [06177] that is before [06440] Rabbah [07237];

²⁴ And Israel [03478] smote [05221] him with the edge [06310] of the sword [02719], and possessed [03423] his land [0776] from Arnon [0769] unto Jabbok [02999], even unto the children [01121] of Ammon [05983]: for the border [01366] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983] was strong [05794].

²⁰ (That also was accounted [02803] a land [0776] of giants [07497]: giants [07497] dwelt [03427] therein in old time [06440]; and the Ammonites [05984] call [07121] them Zamzummims [02157];
²¹ A people [05971] great [01419], and many [07227], and tall [07311], as the Anakims [06062]; but the LORD [03068] destroyed [08045] them before [06440] them; and they succeeded [03423] them, and dwelt [03427] in their stead:

¹⁰ The Emims [0368] dwelt [03427] therein in times past [06440], a people [05971] great [01419], and many [07227], and tall [07311], as the Anakims [06062];
¹¹ Which [01992] also were accounted [02803] giants [07497], as the Anakims [06062]; but the Moabites [04125] call [07121] them Emims [0368].

¹⁹ And when thou comest nigh [07126] over against [04136] the children [01121] of Ammon [05983], distress [06696] them not, nor meddle [01624] with them: for I will not give [05414] thee of the land [0776] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983] any possession [03425]; because I have given [05414] it unto the children [01121] of Lot [03876] for a possession [03425].

⁹ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto me, Distress [06696] not the Moabites [04124], neither contend [01624] with them in battle [04421]: for I will not give [05414] thee of their land [0776] for a possession [03425]; because I have given [05414] Ar [06144] unto the children [01121] of Lot [03876] for a possession [03425].

¹ And it came to pass after this [0310], that the king [04428] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983] died [04191], and Hanun [02586] his son [01121] reigned [04427] in his stead.
² Then said [0559] David [01732], I will shew [06213] kindness [02617] unto Hanun [02586] the son [01121] of Nahash [05176], as his father [01] shewed [06213] kindness [02617] unto me. And David [01732] sent [07971] to comfort [05162] him by the hand [03027] of his servants [05650] for his father [01]. And David's [01732] servants [05650] came [0935] into the land [0776] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983].
³ And the princes [08269] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983] said [0559] unto Hanun [02586] their lord [0113], Thinkest [05869] thou that David [01732] doth honour [03513] thy father [01], that he hath sent [07971] comforters [05162] unto thee? hath not David [01732] rather sent [07971] his servants [05650] unto thee, to [05668] search [02713] the city [05892], and to spy it out [07270], and to overthrow [02015] it?
⁴ Wherefore Hanun [02586] took [03947] David's [01732] servants [05650], and shaved off [01548] the one half [02677] of their beards [02206], and cut off [03772] their garments [04063] in the middle [02677], even to their buttocks [08357], and sent them away [07971].
⁵ When they told [05046] it unto David [01732], he sent [07971] to meet [07125] them, because the men [0582] were greatly [03966] ashamed [03637]: and the king [04428] said [0559], Tarry [03427] at Jericho [03405] until your beards [02206] be grown [06779], and then return [07725].
⁶ And when the children [01121] of Ammon [05983] saw [07200] that they stank [0887] before David [01732], the children [01121] of Ammon [05983] sent [07971] and hired [07936] the Syrians [0758] of Bethrehob [01050], and the Syrians [0758] of Zoba [06678], twenty [06242] thousand [0505] footmen [07273], and of king [04428] Maacah [04601] a thousand [0505] men [0376], and of Ishtob [0382] twelve [06240] [08147] thousand [0505] men [0376].

¹ Then Nahash [05176] the Ammonite [05984] came up [05927], and encamped [02583] against Jabeshgilead [03003] [01568]: and all the men [0582] of Jabesh [03003] said [0559] unto Nahash [05176], Make [03772] a covenant [01285] with us, and we will serve [05647] thee.
² And Nahash [05176] the Ammonite [05984] answered [0559] them, On this [02063] condition will I make [03772] a covenant with you, that I may thrust out [05365] all your right [03225] eyes [05869], and lay [07760] it for a reproach [02781] upon all Israel [03478].
³ And the elders [02205] of Jabesh [03003] said [0559] unto him, Give us seven [07651] days [03117]' respite [07503], that we may send [07971] messengers [04397] unto all the coasts [01366] of Israel [03478]: and then, if there be no man to save [03467] us, we will come out [03318] to thee.

³ And I will cut off [03772] the judge [08199] from the midst [07130] thereof, and will slay [02026] all the princes [08269] thereof with him, saith [0559] the LORD [03068].

¹⁴ Wherefore it is said [0559] in the book [05612] of the wars [04421] of the LORD [03068], What he did [02052] in the Red sea [05492], and in the brooks [05158] of Arnon [0769],

²⁹ In the days [03117] of Pekah [06492] king [04428] of Israel [03478] came [0935] Tiglathpileser [08407] king [04428] of Assyria [0804], and took [03947] Ijon [05859], and Abelbethmaachah [062], and Janoah [03239], and Kedesh [06943], and Hazor [02674], and Gilead [01568], and Galilee [01551], all the land [0776] of Naphtali [05321], and carried them captive [01540] to Assyria [0804].

¹² And Jephthah [03316] sent [07971] messengers [04397] unto the king [04428] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983], saying [0559], What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come [0935] against me to fight [03898] in my land [0776]?

¹⁵ And their king [04428] shall go [01980] into captivity [01473], he and his princes [08269] together [03162], saith [0559] the LORD [03068].

¹⁴ But I will kindle [03341] a fire [0784] in the wall [02346] of Rabbah [07237], and it shall devour [0398] the palaces [0759] thereof, with shouting [08643] in the day [03117] of battle [04421], with a tempest [05591] in the day [03117] of the whirlwind [05492]:

¹³ Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068]; For three [07969] transgressions [06588] of the children [01121] of Ammon [05983], and for four [0702], I will not turn away [07725] the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up [01234] the women with child [02030] of Gilead [01568], that they might enlarge [07337] their border [01366]: