the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Green's Literal Translation
Amos 1:13
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This is what the Lord says: "I will definitely punish the Ammonites for the many crimes they did. They killed the pregnant women in Gilead. The Ammonites did this so that they could take that land and make their country larger.
This is what the LORD says: "For three offenses of the sons of Ammon, and for four, I will not revoke its punishment, Because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead In order to enlarge their borders.
The People of Ammon
This is what the Lord says: "For the many crimes of Ammon, I will punish them. They ripped open the pregnant women in Gilead so they could take over that land and make their own country larger.This is what the Lord says: "Because the Ammonites have committed three crimes— make that four!—I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They ripped open Gilead's pregnant women so they could expand their territory.
Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border.
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away [their punishment]: because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:
Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of the children of Ammon and for four (multiplied delinquencies) I will not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it, Because the Ammonites have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, That they might enlarge their border.
Thus says the Lord : "For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.
Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; Because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, That they may enlarge their border.
The Lord seith these thingis, On thre grete trespassis of the sones of Amon, and on foure, Y schal not conuerte hym, for he karf the wymmen with childe of Galaad, for to alarge his terme.
Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yea, 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:
This is what the LORD says: "For three transgressions of the Ammonites, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their territory.
The Lord said: I will punish Ammon for countless crimes, and I won't change my mind. In Gilead they ripped open pregnant women, just to take the land.
Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border.
These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because in Gilead they had women with child cut open, so that they might make wider the limits of their land.
Here is what Adonai says: "For the people of ‘Amon's three crimes, no, four — I will not reverse it — because they ripped apart pregnant women just to expand their territory,
Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because they ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.
Thus saith the LORD: For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yea, for four, I will not reverse it: because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.
Thus sayth the Lord, For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for foure, I wil not turne away the punishment thereof; because they haue ript vp the women with childe of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.
This is what the Lord says: "The people of Ammon have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! When they attacked Gilead to extend their borders, they ripped open pregnant women with their swords.
The Lord says, "For three sins of Ammon and for four, I will not hold back punishment. They tore open the women of Gilead who were going to have a baby, so that they would get more land.
Thus says the Lord : For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead in order to enlarge their territory.
Thus sayth ye Lord, For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for foure, I will not turne to it, because they haue ript vp the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.
Thus says the LORD: For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment from them, because they have ripped up women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border;
Thus, saith Yahweh, Because of three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, and because of four, will I not turn it back, - Because of their ripping up the pregnant women of Gilead, that they might enlarge their own boundary,
Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of the children of Ammon, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath ripped up the women with child of Galaad to enlarge his border.
Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have ripped up women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.
Thus saith the Lord, For three wickednesses of the children of Ammon, and for foure I will not spare them: because they haue ript vp the women with childe of Gilead, that they might enlarge their borders.
Thus saith the Lord; For three sins of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away from him; because they ripped up the women with child of the Galaadites, that they might widen their coasts.
Ammon
The Lord says, "The people of Ammon have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them. In their wars for more territory they even ripped open pregnant women in Gilead.The Lord says:
Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of the children of `Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; Because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gil`ad, That they may enlarge their border.
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:
Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Ammon and for four I will not revoke the punishment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their territory!
Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, And for four, I do not reverse it, Because of their ripping up the pregnant ones of Gilead, To enlarge their border,
Thus sayeth the LORDE: For thre ad foure wickednesses of the children off Ammon, I will not spare them: because they rypte vp the wome greate with childe in Galaad, to make the borders of their londes the wyder.
God 's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Ammon —make that four—I'm not putting up with her any longer. She ripped open pregnant women in Gilead to get more land for herself. For that, I'm burning down the walls of her capital, Rabbah, burning up her forts. Battle shouts! War whoops! with a tornado to finish things off! The king has been carted off to exile, the king and his princes with him." God 's Decree.
Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of the people of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, Because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead, That they might enlarge their territory.
Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon and for four I will not revoke its punishment, Because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead In order to enlarge their borders.
Thus says Yahweh,"For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon and for fourI will not turn back its punishmentBecause they ripped open the pregnant women of GileadIn order to enlarge their borders.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
the children: Deuteronomy 2:19, Jeremiah 49:1-6, Ezekiel 25:2-7, Zephaniah 2:8
and for: Deuteronomy 23:3, Deuteronomy 23:4, Judges 10:7-9, Judges 11:15-28, 1 Samuel 11:1, 1 Samuel 11:2, 2 Samuel 10:1-8, 2 Kings 24:2, 2 Chronicles 20:1, 2 Chronicles 20:10, Nehemiah 2:19, Nehemiah 4:7-23, Psalms 83:7
because: Hosea 13:16
ripped up the women with child: or, divided the mountains, enlarge. Isaiah 5:8, Jeremiah 49:1, Ezekiel 35:10, Habakkuk 2:5, Habakkuk 2:6
Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 30:7 - General 2 Kings 8:12 - dash 2 Kings 15:16 - all the women 2 Kings 15:29 - Gilead Nehemiah 13:1 - Moabite Psalms 104:20 - makest Proverbs 30:15 - There Jeremiah 25:21 - the Jeremiah 40:14 - Ammonites Ezekiel 21:28 - concerning the Hosea 9:11 - from the birth Amos 1:3 - For Amos 2:1 - For three Obadiah 1:19 - Benjamin Nahum 3:10 - her young Zephaniah 2:9 - Surely Zechariah 2:8 - the nations
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of the children of Ammon,.... These are the descendants of Benammi, a son of Lots, by one of his daughters, Genesis 19:38; are distinguished from the Ammonites, 2 Chronicles 20:1; were near neighbours of the Jews, but great enemies to them, though akin:
and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof;
2 Chronicles 20:1- :. Among these transgressions, for which God would punish these people, are to be reckoned, not only their ill treatment of the Gileadites after mentioned, but other sins, which are all included in this number, and particularly their idolatry; for idolaters they were, though the children of Lot; and originally might have had better instruction, from which they departed. Moloch or Milcom, which signifies a king, was the abomination or idol of the Ammonites, 1 Kings 11:5. The image of this idol, according to the Jews, had seven chapels, and he was within them; and his face was the face of a calf or ox; and his hands were stretched out as a man stretches out his hands to receive anything of his friend; and they set it on fire within, for it was hollow; and everyone according to his offering went into these chapels; he that offered a fowl went into the first chapel; he that offered a sheep, into the second chapel; if a lamb, into the third; a calf, into the fourth; a bullock, into the fifth; an ox, into the sixth; but he that offered his son, they brought him into the seventh; and they put, the child before Moloch, and kindled a fire in the inside of him, until his hands were like fire; and then they took the child, and put him within its arms; and beat upon tabrets or drums, that the cry of the child might not be heard by the father f. Benjamin of Tudela g reports, that in his time, at Gibal, the border of the children of Ammon, a day's journey from Tripoli, was found the remains of a temple of the children of Ammon; and an idol of theirs sitting upon a throne; and it was made of stone, and covered with gold; and there were two women sitting, one on its right hand, and the other on its left; and before it an altar, on which they used to sacrifice and burn incense to it, as in the times of the children of Ammon. Chemosh also was worshipped by the Ammonites, Judges 11:24; which was also the god of the Moabites; of which Judges 11:24- :;
because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border; this Hazael king of Syria did, according to Elisha's prophecy; and very likely the children of Ammon might join with him, inasmuch as they bordered on the countries which he smote, 2 Kings 8:12. This was an instance of shocking cruelty and inhumanity, to destroy at once the innocent and the impotent, though frequently done by enemies, 2 Kings 15:16. The reason of it was not only that they might possess their land, but keep it when they had got it; there being no heir to claim it, or molest them in the possession of it; see Jeremiah 49:1; though some read the words, "because they divided, or cleaved the mountain of Gilead" h; so Aben Ezra and Kimchi, though they mention the other sense: this they did to get into the land of Gilead, as Hannibal cut through the Alps; or rather to remove the borders of it, and lay it even with their own, and so enlarge theirs; which, as Kimchi says, was a very great iniquity, being one of the curses written in the law, Deuteronomy 27:17; thus one sin leads on to another. Some by "mountains" understand towers or fortified cities as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe; such as were built on mountains, which sense is approved by Gussetius i.
f Yelammedenu apud Yalkut Simeoni in Jer. vii. 31. fol. 61. 4. g Itinerarium, p. 33. h בקעם הרות "eo quod sciderint montes", Pagninus; so some in Drusius. i Ebr. Comment. p. 216.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
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 Numbers 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 Numbers 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” 1 Samuel 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 2 Samuel 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” Deuteronomy 2:9, Deuteronomy 2:19. Akin by descent, their history had been alike. Each had driven out a giant tribe; Moab, the Emim; Ammon, the Zamzummim Deuteronomy 2:10-11, Deuteronomy 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” Numbers 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” Joshua 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” Deuteronomy 3:11. Envy, jealousy, and fear, united them to “hire Balaam to curse Israel” Deuteronomy 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 Numbers 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 Judges 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 Judges 10:11, not from Moab. There we find Ammon under a king, and in league with the Philistines Judges 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 Judges 10:9, until they were subdued by Jephthah. Moab is not named; but the king of Ammon claims as my land Judges 11:13, the whole which Moab and Ammon had lost to the Amorites and they to Israel, “from Arnon unto Jabbok and unto Jordan” Judges 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 Amos 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 1 Samuel 22:3, was probably no other than the Ramoth-Mizpeh Joshua 13:26 of Gad, the Mizpeh Judges 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 2 Samuel 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 2 Samuel 8:2, and fighting men of “the cities of Ammon” 2 Samuel 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 Chronicles 20:0, and with Nebuchadnezzar against Jehoiakim 2 Kings 24:2, whom they had before sought to stir up against the king of Babylon Jeremiah 27:3. Both profited for a time by the distresses of Israel, “magnifying” themselves “against her border” Zephaniah 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 Ezekiel 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 Jeremiah 40:11-14; Jeremiah 41:10. When Jerusalem was to be rebuilt after the return from the captivity, Ammonites and Moabites Nehemiah 2:10, Nehemiah 2:19; Nehemiah 4:1-3, “Sanballat the Horonite” (that is, out of Horonaim, which Moab had taken to itself Isaiah 15:5; Jeremiah 48:3, Jeremiah 48:5, Jeremiah 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” Deuteronomy 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” 1 Kings 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 2 Kings 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” Jeremiah 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 Hosea 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?
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Amos 1:13. The children of Ammon — The country of the Ammonites lay to the east of Jordan, in the neighbourhood 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.
