Jeremiah 49:1-6--Judgment on Ammon

Jeremiah 49:1-6
English Standard Version

Judgment on Ammon
49 Concerning the Ammonites.

Thus says the LORD:

“Has Israel no sons?
    Has he no heir?
Why then has Milcom dispossessed Gad,
    and his people settled in its cities?
2 Therefore, behold, the days are coming,
    declares the LORD,
when I will cause the battle cry to be heard
    against Rabbah of the Ammonites;
it shall become a desolate mound,
    and its villages shall be burned with fire;
then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him,
    says the LORD.

3 “Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste!
    Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah!
Put on sackcloth,
    lament, and run to and fro among the hedges!
For Milcom shall go into exile,
    with his priests and his officials.
4 Why do you boast of your valleys,
    O faithless daughter,
who trusted in her treasures, saying,
    ‘Who will come against me?’
5 Behold, I will bring terror upon you,
    declares the Lord God of hosts,
    from all who are around you,
and you shall be driven out, every man straight before him,
    with none to gather the fugitives.

6 “But afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, declares the LORD.”

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Much judgment was proclaimed over the people of Moab, the descendants of the oldest son of Lot.  This passage declares judgment on the descendants of his younger son Ben-ammi, the Ammonites.  They also were left alone at the time of the Conquest (see Deuteronomy 2:19), yet they were cursed and not allowed to approach the altar of the LORD in Deuteronomy 23:3.

The people of Ammon were allowed to disposes the land of Gad that was given as an eternal inheritance to Gad and his descendants (remember that Gad along with Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh took their possession of land from the east side of the Jordan River (they were what I refer to as the Trans-Jordan Tribes).  Israel and Judah had not fought to defend this part of the Land and now the northern 10 tribes are in Exile to the Assyrians.  Though it appears there is no one to defend the Land at this time, the LORD will cause war to break out that will make the cities of the Ammonites desolate.  Their cities will be burned with fire and it will will be Israel (when they return from Exile) that will disposes the land of the Ammonites and finally receive this part of the Covenant of Land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The king and the religious leaders of the Ammonites will be taken into exile, and their false gods and temples will be destroyed.  The prophecy is similar to the at of the Moabites, though the sections about the pride and arrogance of the Moabites is not repeated here for the Ammonites.  God needs no other reason to disposes these people other than their time has come according to His plan and that He has made a covenant with his people Israel that He intends to fulfil.  The LORD is the one that established nations, tears them down, and draws and moves their borders as He pleases.  He sets up the leaders of nations and removes them from power as He sees fit.  While Ammon may not have necessarily had the pride of Moab, they believed that none of their enemies would attack them and that they were safe because they were surrounded by their friends.  It seems that the people of Israel and Judah chose not to possess this land when they returned from Exile (or at least not for long) as we see it being a place full of Gentiles in the New Testament (the Decapolis).  Today's Jewish people traded this land for what they thought would give them peace when the nation of Jordan was created.  Though Jordan has been an off-and-on ally of modern-day Israel, there will be a day where Israel will not only own all the Land of Canaan that was promised to the Twelve Tribes, but also all the Land of the Abrahamic Covenant.  The LORD will fulfil His promises to His people.