And say unto the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity;
Say unto the Ammonites ... Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary. Ammon had hid hold of the land of Gad when the ten tribes of Israel were carried away into Assyria (Jeremiah 49:1).
When it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity - rather, 'for it was profaned, because it was desolate, for they went into captivity:' expressing the cause of the insolent exultation of Ammon over Jerusalem. They triumphed especially over the fall of the "sanctuary," as the triumph of paganism over the rival claims of Yahweh. In Jehoshaphat's time, when Psalms 83:1-18 was written, we see the same profane spirit (Psalms 83:4; Psalms 83:7-8; Psalms 83:12, "Ammon' and "Assur also is joined with them: they have hoopes the children of Lot," who were, therefore, the leaders of the unholy conspiracy for seizing on the vacated possessions of Israel: "Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession"). Now at last their wicked wish seems accomplished in the fall of Jerusalem. Ammon, descended from Lot, held the region east of Jordan, separated from the Amorites on the north by the river Jabbok, and from Moab on the south by the Arnon. They were auxiliaries to Babylon in the destruction of Judah, in the reign of Jehoiakim (2 Kings 24:2).