AMMONITES. - A people (Hebr. Bēnē-ʿAmmōn "children of Ammon," twice [1 Sam. 11:11; Ps. 83 Hebr., 8] only ʿAmmōnī, gentilic adjective ʿammōnī; Septuagint υἱοὶ Ἀμμών and Ἀμμάνι; Num. 21:24 Ἀμμάνιται; Assyrian Bit-Ammāni) descended from Ammon (v.) and therefore brother to the Moabites, with whom it is closely associated in its history and culture, and related to Israel. The ethnographic affinity of the A. with the Moabites and Hebrews is confirmed by the analogy with the Hebrew-Moabite language of the Ammonite proper names (personal and geographic) preserved for us in the Bible or in Assyrian monuments. The name survives in that of the present capital of Transjordan, ʿAmmān, on the site of the Ammonite capital Rabbāh ("great"), a name identical with that of the capital of Moab. The kingdom of the A. lay north of that of Moab. The A. at first occupied the region northeast of the Dead Sea, more or less between the two rivers Jabbok and Arnon (Judg. 11:13, 26), previously inhabited by the giants Zamzummim, whom they exterminated (Deut. 2:19-21). But the strip adjoining the Jordan and the Dead Sea was taken from them by the Amorites, led by King Sihon, who drove them farther east, and then taken from the Amorites by the Israelites, who divided it among the tribes of Reuben and Gad (Judg. 11:19-22; Num. 21:25 ff.; Josh. 13:15-28).
Wishing to reconquer that territory, the A. were in continuous struggle against the Hebrews. Although Israel, by divine command (Deut. 2:19-37), avoided fighting and plundering them, the envy and hatred of the A. toward Israel were unceasing, and Israel returned it (Deut. 23:3-6: "do not admit them even after the tenth generation"). They had hindered Israel during the Exodus (Deut. 23:4 ff.) and Balaam came from their land (Num. 22:5). In the time of the Judges, after having supported the Moabite invasion and carried out various raids in Judah and Ephraim, they invaded Gilead but were routed by Jephthah (Judg. 3:13; 10:7-11:36). Later their king Nāhāsh (Vulgate: Naas) was defeated by Saul (1 Sam. 11). David, who had been treated kindly by King Nāhāsh (2 Sam. 10:2), sent a friendly embassy to his son and successor Ḥānūn (Vulg.: Hanon); but the latter, by his outrages, provoked a long and bitter war that ended with the capture of Rabbath-Ammon and harsh reprisals (2 Sam. 10-12). At the division of the kingdom of Israel the A. resumed, with full independence, their plans for revenge. They repeatedly attacked the kingdom of Judah, but were defeated first by Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20), then by Uzziah (ibid. 26:7-8) and by his son Jotham (ibid. 27:5), to whom they were tributary for three years. Therefore they rejoiced at the misfortunes of Israel (Zeph. 2:8) and at the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 9:24 ff.; Ezek. 21:33-37; 25:1-7), indeed they cooperated in it under Jehoiakim (2 Kings 24:2), and their king Baalis had Gedaliah (v.; ibid. 25:25 and Jer. 40:14-41:2) put to death; they realized their ancient dream by occupying the territory of Gad (Jer. 49:1). On the return of the Jews from exile, they joined the Samaritans to hinder the restoration of Jerusalem (Neh. 4:2-8).
During the exile and even more after it, the A. tried to unite with the Jews in order to absorb them (Jer. 40:14-41:15; Ezra 9:1; Neh. 6:17-18; 13:4). Their leader, in the time of Nehemiah, was Tobiah, called "servant" (Neh. 2:10, 19) because he was a vassal of the king of Persia. They were themselves absorbed by the Arabs (bēnē-qedem "children of the east"; Ezek. 25:4), with whom they already appear mixed in the 5th century B.C. (Neh. 2:10; 4:7). After the Macedonian conquest, their territory bears the name Ἀμμανῖτις (Fl. Josephus, Ant. Jud., IV, 5, 3; cf. H. Vincent, in Rev. Bibl., 29 [1920], pp. 182-88). In the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., the A. were ruled by various Tobiahs (papyri of Zenon, 259/8 B.C.; inscription of ʿArāq el-Emīr, ca. 175; Fl. Josephus, Ant. Jud., XII, 4, 2-11; 2 Macc. 3:11); it is a dynasty (Tobiads) descended, it seems, from the Tobiah of the 5th century (Neh. 2:10-13:4).
The A. killed the Jews dwelling among them in the time of the Maccabees, but were severely punished by Judas, who defeated their leader Timothy (1 Macc. 5:1-8; 2 Macc. 8:30), who was routed and killed (2 Macc. 10:24-37). Ptolemy, son-in-law and murderer (134 B.C.) of Simon Maccabeus, took refuge with the prince of the A., Zeno Cotylas (Fl. Josephus, Ant. Jud., XIII, 8, 1). Their capital Rabbāh was then called Philadelphia, because it had been restored by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285/4-246); but alongside this official name the ancient one survives: Ῥαβλθᾶ ὁ Ῥαβλθᾶ ἀμμανία (pap. of Zenon no. 616, Fl. Josephus, Stephanus of Byzantium), Ῥαβλθᾶ ἀμμανία (Polybius, V, 71).
Also at the hands of the Assyrian kings the Ammonite nation (Assyr. māt bīt amman "land of the house of Ammon") suffered various defeats (E. Schrader, Die heilinschriftl. Bibliothek, I, Berlin 1889, p. 172; II, ibid. 1890, pp. 20, 90, 148, 240) and was subjected by them to tribute. The Ammonite king Basa was defeated at Qarqar (854) by Shalmaneser II, the king Pudullu (701) was a vassal of Sennacherib, and the king Amminadab (Ammi-nadbī) was a vassal of Ashurbanipal (d. 626). The A. then passed successively under Persian, Greek, Ptolemaic-Seleucid and Roman domination (in 64 B.C. their territory was annexed to the Roman province of Syria). St. Justin (C. Tryph., 119) still mentions them as a numerous people (mid-2nd century A.D.). They disappear in the 3rd century A.D., absorbed by the Arabs (Origen, In Iob, I, 1; cf. Flavius Josephus, Ant. Jud., I, 11, 5; XIII, 9, 1).
The A. preceded Israel in political organization and economic prosperity. Besides Rabbāh, they had various cities (Judg. 11:33 "twenty"; 2 Sam. 12:31), among them Minnith (Vulg.: Mennith) and ʿAbēl-Kērāmim (v. ABEL, 5), whose name attests the fertility of the soil. They boasted of their fertile valleys (Jer. 49:4). But they were idolaters and were distinguished for their cruelty (Am. 1:13-15). Their religion centered on the cult, exercised by influential priests (Jer. 49:3), of the national god Milcom, whose image at Rabbāh was covered with gold and gems (1 Chron. 20:2 [Septuagint
Μαλλήλ]; 2 Sam. 12:30, where the Vulgate, as in the two passages the Masoretic text, reads "their king," Septuagint Μαλλήλ). Milcom is the Babylonian Malkum, venerated by the eastern Semites from the 24th century B.C. Solomon erected an altar to Milcom to the right of the Mount of Olives (1 Kings 11:5, 7, 33; 2 Kings 23:13).
An Italian archaeological mission, directed by G. Guidi (1927) and R. Bartoccini (1929 ff.), carried out important excavations at Ammon.