AMON (Hebrew «Builder»; Septuagint: 'Αμώς). - King (14th) of Judah (probably 641-39 B.C.; F. X. Kugler, A. Pohl: 639-38 B.C.). Son of Manasseh and of Meshullemeth, he succeeded his father at the age of 22.

He followed in his father's footsteps, siding with the Assyrians and encouraging idolatry: "he also served all the abominations that his father had served and adored them" (II Kings 21:21). Indeed he surpassed him in irreligion (II Chron. 33:23), winning the sympathy of the corrupt lower classes.

His brief reign was without glory and stained by rampant impiety. He was assassinated after two years of reign by a palace conspiracy (perhaps due to desires for religious reform). Against the assassination the "people of the land" (am hā-'āres, "the landowners of the countryside") rose up, killed the conspirators and proclaimed A.'s son, Josiah, king. A. was buried, like his father Manasseh, in the garden of Uzza, which surrounded the villa he had outside Jerusalem. (II Kings 21:19-26; II Chron. 33:21-25).

While R. Kittel shortens it to one year (638), J. Coppens proposes, after R. Fruin, to extend A.'s reign by two years, placing it between 644 (or 645) and 640 B.C. BIBL. R. Kittel, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, II, 7th ed., Stuttgart 1925, p. 401 ff.; A. Pohl, Historia populi Israel, Rome 1933, pp. 20 ff., 149; J. Coppens, in Ephemerides theologica Lovaniense, 13 (1936), pp. 474, 480.

Antonino Romeo

@incollection{ec1_amon_ebraico_costruttore_setta, author = {Romeo, Antonino}, title = {Amon (Ebraico «Costruttore»; Settanta: 'ΑΜΏΣ')}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {1093}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/amon-ebraico-costruttore-settanta-amos} }

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