Rabbah of Ammon
רַבַּת בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן · “Rabat Amon” on the map
Where was biblical Rabbah of Ammon? At the Amman Citadel, downtown Amman, in Jordan. I mark it certain.
Joab laid siege to the Ammonite capital here while David stayed home in Jerusalem. Uriah the Hittite died at these walls, sent to the front line by the king who had taken his wife.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- The Amman Citadel, downtown Amman, in Jordan
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Rabbah of the Ammonites, Rabbath-ammon, Rabbath Ammon, Philadelphia, Amman, Jabal al-Qal'a, Amman Citadel
- Location
- 31.9539° N, 35.9106° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The name never left. The Bible calls it Rabbah of the children of Ammon, the great city of the Ammonites. Ptolemy II renamed it Philadelphia, but the local people kept calling it Ammon. Today Amman is the capital of Jordan.
The hill matches the story. The Ammonite capital stood on the L-shaped citadel hill above the Wadi Amman stream. The Book of Samuel describes the city in two parts. Joab first captured the "water city" below. Then he sent word to David to come and take the royal city himself, so the victory would carry the king's name. A fortified city on the height and a water supply at its foot. That is the citadel and the stream.
Excavators on the citadel found royal-style Ammonite statues and the oldest known inscription in the Ammonite language. Above the Ammonite levels sit the ruins of Roman Philadelphia and an Umayyad palace. The city never moved.
The Torah already knew Rabbah. When Moses describes Og king of Bashan, it adds that his iron bed, nine cubits long, was kept in Rabbah of the Ammonites. The prophets knew it too. Amos promised fire on its walls and its fortresses. Jeremiah warned that it would become a desolate mound.
Visiting today
The Amman Citadel is an archaeological park above downtown Amman, with the Temple of Hercules, the Umayyad palace and the Jordan Archaeological Museum, which displays the Ammonite statues. The Roman theater lies in the valley below.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Rabat Amon on the interactive map →
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