Ezekiel 25

Ezekiel calls them bene Ammon, meaning “people of Ammon” or “children of Ammon.” He’s not addressing national leaders or the plug of land. He’s targeting the residents.

Rabbah was about a three-day march east of Jerusalem, across the Jordan River, near to what is now Amman, capital of Jordan.

What’s left of all three Ammon towns are all less than 10 miles (16 km) east of the northern tip of the Dead Sea. Beth-jeshimoth is a ruin called Tell el-Azeimeh, just east of where the Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea. Baal-meon is the modern village of Main, about 9 miles (14 km) east of the Dead Sea. Kiriathaim, called Khirbet el-Qureiyat, is linked to several ruins, with medium to low confidence among archaeologists.

First-century Jewish historian, Josephus, reported that five years after King Nebuchadnezzar’s army destroyed Jerusalem, in 586 BC, they decimated both Ammon and Edom.

“Punishment” is a vague description, especially coming after what God says he’s going to do to Ammon. When he’s finished with Ammon, there won’t be any people left to say, “I’m an Ammonite.” The land gets a reset with a new group of people called anything but the people of Ammon. In time, survivors from Ammon were assimilated into the vegetable soup of nations conquered by Babylon and then Persia. They lost their distinct identity.

See Psalm 137:7.

Teman was a major city in Edom, in what is now the country of Jordan. But its location is unknown. Teman is named after Esau’s grandson. One of Job’s visitors came from there (Job 2:11).

Dedan, now the city of Al Ula, is in the Saudi Arabian desert boonies, where the sand meets the rock foothills east of the Red Sea. As the raven flies, it’s close to 400 miles (over 600 km) southeast of Jerusalem.

“Crete” is a guess. The word used in most translations is Cherethites. Ezekiel uses it as another name for the Philistines. Some scholars say the word seems related to Crete, one of the islands and coastal regions that produced a powerful force of invaders known as the Sea People. Elsewhere, the invaders were called Caphtorim, people from Caphtor (Deuteronomy 2:23). Scholars say this, too, is likely a reference to the “Sea People.” In about the 1200s BC, they invaded Egypt and what is now the Palestinian region of Gaza, along with the coast of Israel. Egypt stopped them, but people on what became Israel’s southern west coast didn’t. Scholars suggest that Caphtor was an ancient name for the Mediterranean island of Crete, and that Caphtorim was the original name of the fierce fighting people who became known as the Philistines.