Amos 1:13-15

Amos 1:13-15

[13] 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:  [14] But I will kindle  a fire  in the wall  of Rabbah,  and it shall devour  the palaces  thereof, with shouting  in the day  of battle,  with a tempest  in the day  of the whirlwind:  [15] And their king  shall go  into captivity,  he and his princes  together,  saith  the LORD. 

What does Amos 1:13-15 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

The Ammonites were descendants of Lot, Abraham"s nephew (cf. Genesis 19:30-38). Ammon was in trouble with Yahweh because its soldiers brutally attacked and slew the Israelites, even the pregnant women and their unborn children, who lived in Gilead to the west of Ammon. This brutal slaughter terrorized and decimated the attacked populace. The Ammonites did this to enlarge their territory to the west for materialistic advantage, not for self-preservation. Consequently Yahweh promised to destroy Rabbah, the capital, and Ammon"s walled cities in battle. The Ammonites" king and royal officials would go into exile.
This happened when Tiglath-Pileser III invaded Ammon in734 B.C, but Ammon"s final demise came when Nebuchadnezzar sacked Rabbah and took many of Ammon"s citizens captive to Babylon around586 B.C. The last reference to them is the Ammonites" defeat by Judas Maccabeus in the second century B.C. ( 1 Maccabees 5:6-7).
"In the Old Testament, as in the ancient Near East, theophanic imagery was used to indicate the active presence of a god in battles against those who refused his rule." [1]