John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 49:1

"Of the children of Ammon. Thus saith Jehovah: Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth Malcam possess Gad, and his people well in the cities thereof?" — Jeremiah 49:1 (ASV)

We have said that the Ammonites were not only adjacent to the Moabites but had also originated from Lot, and were therefore related to them by blood. Their origin was indeed base and shameful, for they were, as is well known, the offspring of incest. There was, however, the bond of kinship between them, because both nations had the same father. God had spared them when He brought His people up from Egypt; for in remembrance of the holy man Lot, He wanted both peoples to remain unharmed. But ingratitude doubled their crime, for these impious men did not cease to harass the children of Abraham in various ways. For this reason, therefore, Jeremiah now prophesies against them.

And we see here, again, the object of this prophecy and the design of the Holy Spirit in announcing it, namely, that the Israelites might know that they were not so completely cast off by God, but that there remained some remnants of His paternal favor. For if the Moabites and the Ammonites had been free from all evils, it would have been a very grievous trial. It would have been enough to overwhelm weak minds to see a people whom God had adopted, miserably oppressed and severely chastised, while heathen nations were remaining peaceful in the enjoyment of their pleasures, and also exulting over the calamities of others.

God, then, in order to mitigate the grief and sorrow which the children of Israel derived from their troubles and calamities, shows that He would still show them favor, because He would carry on war against their enemies and become the avenger of all the wrongs they had suffered.

It was no common consolation for the Israelites to hear that they were still the objects of God’s care, even though He seemed in various ways to have poured forth His wrath upon them in a full stream. We now see, then, the reason why Jeremiah denounced destruction on the Ammonites, as he had done before on the Moabites.

Then he says, To the children of Ammon: Are there no children to Israel? Hath he no heir? It was a very grievous trial to the miserable Israelites to see a part of the inheritance promised them by God forcibly taken from them by the Ammonites. For what could have come to their minds except that they had been deceived by vain promises? But it had happened that the Ammonites had deprived the children of Israel of a part of their inheritance. Hence the Prophet teaches us here, that though God connived for a time and passed by this robbery, He still would not allow the Ammonites to go unpunished for having taken to themselves what justly belonged to others. Hence it is added, Why doth their king inherit Gad?

I do not know why Jerome rendered מלכם, melkam, as though it were the name of an idol, as the word is found in the Prophet Amos. But it is evident that Jeremiah speaks here of the king, for immediately after he adds, his people. Their king, then, he says, inherits Gad. Gad is not the name of a place, as some think, but Mount Gilead, which had been given to that tribe. The Prophet says that they possessed the country of the Gadites, for they had been ejected from their portion, and the children of Ammon had occupied what had been given by God to them. And this is confirmed by the Prophet Amos, when he says,

For three of the transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not be propitious to them, because they have cut off the mountain of Gilead (Amos 1:13).

He speaks there metaphorically, because God had fixed the limits between the tribe of Gad and the children of Ammon, so that both could be satisfied with their own inheritance. But the children of Ammon had broken through and expelled the tribe of Gad from the cities of Mount Gilead. This, then, is what our Prophet now means: namely, that they had taken for themselves that part of the land which had been allotted to the children of Gad. For it immediately follows, and his people dwell in his cities—that is, in the cities which had been given by lot to that tribe. For we know that a possession beyond Jordan had been given to the children of Gad. We now perceive, then, the meaning of the words.

God, then, shows that He had not forgotten His covenant, though He had for a time allowed the Ammonites to invade the inheritance which He had conferred on the children of Israel; yet the Gadites would at length recover what had been unjustly taken from them. For it was an intolerable robbery that the Ammonites should have dared to take for themselves that land—a land which was not the property of men, but rather of God Himself, for He had called it His rest, because He wanted His people to dwell there. And though God inflicted a just punishment on the Gadites when He expelled them from their inheritance, yet He afterwards punished the children of Ammon, just as He is accustomed to chastise His own children by the hand of the wicked, and at length to give the wicked also their just reward.