When we next hear of them, in the early years of king Saul, the children of Amnion form a powerful nation under a cap.able ruler, kini; Nahash. One of the first di.-tinetions in battle gained by Saul was his defeat of Nahash and the Ammonites, and the deliverance of the inhabit- ants of Jabesh-gilead, to whose city they had laid siege (1 S 11). The LXX text here reads that this eonflict took place about a month after Saul had ascended the throne. During the earlier
fart of the reign of Uavid, hostilities between srael and Amnion ceased, because in the time of his trouble, Nahash, either this same mon- arch or perhaps his successor, ' showed kindness to David ' (2 S 10^). On the death of David's friend, me-ssengers were sent to condole >vith his son Uanun, who, suspecting that they were spies, treated them infamously, so that David was obliged to enter upon a war to >vipe out the insult that had been put upon his ambassadors. The sense- less conduct of the Ammonite monarch e\'idently awakened among the Israelites all the old bitter- ness, so that in the hour of victory David and his men lost all control of themselves, and inflicted npon the vanquished chililren of Amrnon the most cruel and revolting barbarities (2 S 12'-"'"). Their capital, Rabbalh-Ammon, was taken by Joab, David's commander-in-chief, though he gave the honour to the king. This city (in Maccabican times known by the name of Philadelphia), one of the cities of the Decapolis, lay about 20 miles east of the Jordan, just outside the eastern border of the territory of'^ Uad, at the southern spring of the Jabbok.
After the division of the kingdom, the country that had been taken from the Ammonites natur- ally fell with the rest of the transjordanic terri- tory to the nation of the ten tribes. The Ammonites, however, soon took advantage of the weakness of the divided kingdom to assert again their independence. Tliev also joined eagerly with the Assyrians in their attack on Gik'a<i, obtaining increase of territory as the reward of their service ; and subsequently, when Tiglath- pileser defeated the Ueubenites and Cadites, the Ammonites seem to have been allowed to rcoccupy art-s, at least, of their old territory on the lanks of the Jordan (2 K 15", 1 Ch 'n-'). The cruelty which they practised in the war against
• Ace. to Boine liKxIern criticH, liowever, Jg lll»-M U a late in- t<irp"Utlon (Moore, Judga, p. S!S3X
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Gilead as allies of the Syrians is described as having been committed with the object of getting their borders enlarged ; and for this, and for their malignant exultation over Israel's fall, they are denounced by the prophets (Am 1", Zeph 2''', Jer 49'-', Lzk 21^-*-). We have a detailed account (2 Ch 20) of hostilities between the An:- monites, at the head of a powerful confederacj', and the southern kingdom of Jmlali luider Jehosha- pliat. Great preparations had been made for this campaign, which was intended to be decisive ; but suspicions of treachery among the allies turned the arms of the panic-stricken hosts against one another in a great slaughter, so that the children of Judah did not require to draw a swonl.
After nearly 150 years we again find the Am monites at war with Judah (2 Ch 27''), when they were thoroughly beaten bj' Jotham, and laid undci a heavy tribute. Duiing the years in whicli Judah was tottering on the verge of overthrow, the Ammonites appear among the vassal tribes used by ISabylon to harass and iilunder tho.se that had revolted from her sway (2 K 24'-). After the overthrow of Judah, Baalis, the king of the Am- monites, entertaining still the old unconquerable enmity towards the Jews, sent Ishniael, a man remotely connected with the royal family of Judah, who had been resident in the country of Amnion, to murder the popular and successful governor Gedaliah, under whom the Jewish colony, consisting of those who remained in the land of Judah, had be''un to prosper (2 K 25'^-*, Jer 40'^). In the days of Nehemiah, the Ammonites were active in their opposition to the Jews, maliciously endeavouring to lunder the building of the walls of the city and the restoration of the temple (Neh 4). Three hundred years later, in the time of Judas ]M.accab:ius, the Ammonites joined the Syrians against the Jews. The Jewish leader went through Gilead and inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Ammonites and their confederates under their com- mander Tiiiiotheus (1 Mae 5'). The Ammonites are referred to by Justin Martyr, about the middle of the second Christian cent., as even then a numerous people ; but not more than a century later Origen speaks vaguely of them, as of Moabites and Edoniites, clas.sing tiiem all with the Arab tribes ; and with this doubtful allusion they pass altogether out of history.
Tlie Ammonites seem to have been notorious among the nations for their cruelty. Their religion wa.s a genuine reflection of this infamous national characteristic. Their chief deity was Molech or Milcom (1 K W-").
Ammonitcs8(n>;i3y), woman of Ammon, 1 K 14"- ", 2 Ch I2'» 24".
LiTKRATOiiE. — Kautisch In Rlehm, Hnn/fipSrterfmeA, 1884, pp. 5f>, 56 — an ajliiiirablo nnd cdinprehensivt' skftch. 8co iiiiliiiann and DelitzHch on Cn lliw In tin Ir Coniineiitarlps ; Ewnlil, History of hrad, ii. Iximlcin, lS7ll, \<f. 29.'i, 3:i6, 808 If. ; ill. 1878, p. 24, etc. ; Ebrard, Jpoloyttics, Eilin. in.^t. ii. 840-351.