Amos 1:13

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.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Yahweh speaks through the prophet Amos, delivering a pronouncement against the Ammonites immediately following the oracle against Edom in the preceding verse. This declaration occurs within a sequential series of divine judgments targeting surrounding nations.

The words — The phrase כֹּ֚ה (koh) אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה (koh amar Yahweh) translates literally as "thus says Yahweh," anchoring the message in divine authority. The idiom שְׁלֹשָׁה פִּשְׁעֵי (sheloshah pish'ei), meaning "three transgressions," functions as a legal marker indicating a complete and exhausted case for judgment.

The thread — This judgment against Ammon aligns with later prophetic condemnations recorded in Jeremiah 49:1 and Ezekiel 25:2. The theme of national guilt and divine reckoning for rebellion also parallels the declaration in Hosea 13:16.

Why it lands — The text explicitly states that Yahweh will not revoke judgment because the Ammonites ripped open pregnant women of Gilead to enlarge their territory. It requires the reader to recognize that calculated territorial violence is a concrete subject of divine scrutiny.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

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:

Cross-references

Ezekiel 25:2 “Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.
Hosea 13:16 Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
Jeremiah 49:1 Concerning the Ammonites, this is what the LORD says: “Has Israel no sons? Is he without heir? Why then has Milcom taken possession of Gad? Why have his people settled in their cities?
Isaiah 5:8 Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.
Ezekiel 35:10 Because you have said, ‘These two nations and countries will be ours, and we will possess them,’ even though the LORD was there,
Zephaniah 2:8 “I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders.
Deuteronomy 2:19 But when you get close to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the Ammonites. I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their possession.”
Deuteronomy 23:3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation.
Judges 10:7 So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites,
Judges 11:15 to tell him, “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or of the Ammonites.