(Amʹmon) [The People].

Lot’s son by his younger daughter; the progenitor of the Ammonites. (Ge 19:38) As in the case of the older daughter, so also Lot’s younger daughter had relations with her father while they were residing in a cave in a mountainous region​—after Lot’s daughters had given him much wine to drink. (Ge 19:30-36) The name given to Ammon by his mother was Ben-ammi, meaning, “Son of My People [that is, relatives]” and not of foreigners like the Sodomites. The name thus evidently was associated with the concern voiced by the older daughter that the two daughters could not find anyone of their own people or family line to marry in the land they were inhabiting.

“Ammon” is also used at Psalm 83:7 to refer to the nation of his descendants. The expression “sons of Ammon” would recall to the Israelites the relationship existing between them and the Ammonites, a relationship that even Jehovah took into account, as evidenced by his directing the Israelites not to molest Ammon or to engage in strife with them, since they were sons of Lot, Abraham’s nephew.​—De 2:19; see AMMONITES.