The absence of Ammon
is noteworthy, especially since Deuteronomy 2:16–22, the text from which Jephthah might be drawing, describes the Israelites treating Ammon just as they had treated Moab and Edom. It is likely that Jephthah does not mention Ammon because contrary to the king’s charge, the Ammonites were completely out of the picture when the Israelites had first arrived on the scene. The Ammonites’ present claim is a fabrication based on a revisionist understanding of history.
1
15 and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites,