Amon
AMI (ā'mī, Heb. ’āmî). A servant of Solomon (Ezra.2.57), called Amon in Neh.7.59.
AMON (ā'mŏn, Heb. ’āmôn)
AMI, AMON ā’ mī, ăm’ ən (אָמִֽי, אָמֹֽון). Ancestor of a family of Solomon’s servants (Ezra 2:57; 1 Esd 5:34 [KJV ALLOM; ASV ALLON]); called AMON in Nehemiah 7:59.
“Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord...” (2 Kings 21:19f.; 2 Chron 33:21ff.). No reason appears, but “the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed him in his house” (v. 24). This dastardly deed did not have popular support, for one reads next that “the people of the land slew all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead” (v. 25). Josiah was both a good king and one who lived long. Many speculate that Manasseh converted too late in life to have any effect on the evil Amon, but Josiah, the grandson, was influenced for the good. Josiah would have been six years old when Manasseh died and eight when his father Amon died.
2. The governor of the city of Samaria at the time of Ahab, king of Israel. The only occurrence of his name is in the parallel passages of 1 Kings 22:26 and 2 Chronicles 18:25. There Ahab ordered that Micaiah the prophet be taken to Amon to be put in prison.
3. One of Solomon’s servants whose sons returned from exile under Zerubbabel (Neh 7:59). In the parallel passage, Ezra 2:57, he is called “Ami.”
4. The name of an Egyp. deity who resided at Thebes (Jer 46:25 KJV, here reads the multitude of No). Since Amon, the king of Judah, bore this name—which is one of the few Heb. names with no Sem. divine element incorporated into it—some scholars have connected him with this Egyp. deity. This supposition is strengthened in the light of the unorthodoxy of Amon’s father, Manasseh. The Thebian god Amon was pictured as a ram and was basically a fertility deity. When Thebes became the capital of Egypt, Amon was connected with Re, the sun god.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
a’-mi, a’-me (’ami): Ancestor of a family among "Solomon’s servants" in the Return (Ezr 2:57); the same as Amon in Ne 7:59.
A name identical with that of the Egyptian local deity of Thebes (No); compare Jer 46:25. The foreign name given to a Hebrew prince is remarkable, as is also the fact that it is one of the two or three royal names of Judah not compounded with the name of Yahweh. See Manasseh. It seems to reflect the sentiment which his fanatical father sought to make prevail that Yahweh had no longer any more claim to identification with the realm than had other deities.
(1) A king of Judah, son and successor of Manasseh; reigned two years and was assassinated in his own palace by the officials of his household. The story of his reign is told briefly in 2Ki 21:19-26, and still more briefly, though in identical terms, so far as they go, in 2Ch 33:21-25. His short reign was merely incidental in the history of Judah; just long enough to reveal the traits and tendencies which directly or indirectly led to his death. It was merely a weaker continuation of the regime of his idolatrous father, though without the fanaticism which gave the father positive character, and without the touch of piety which, if the Chronicler’s account is correct, tempered the father’s later years.
If the assassination was the initial act of a revolution the latter was immediately suppressed by "the people of the land," who put to death the conspirators and placed Amon’s eight-year-old son Josiah on the throne. In the view of the present writer the motive of the affair was probably connected with the perpetuity of the Davidic dynasty, which, having survived so long according to prophetic prediction (compare 2Sa 7:16; Ps 89:36,37), was an essential guarantee of Yahweh’s favor. Manasseh’s foreign sympathies, however, had loosened the hold of Yahweh on the officials of his court; so that, instead of being the loyal center of devotion to Israel’s religious and national idea, the royal household was but a hotbed of worldly ambitions, and all the more for Manasseh’s prosperous reign, so long immune from any stroke of Divine judgment.
It is natural that, seeing the insignificance of Amon’s administration, some ambitious clique, imitating the policy that had frequently succeeded in the Northern Kingdom, should strike for the throne. They had reckoned, however, without estimating the inbred Davidic loyalty of the body of the people. It was a blow at one of their most cherished tenets, committing the nation both politically and religiously to utter uncertainty. That this impulsive act of the people was in the line of the purer religious movement which was ripening in Israel does not prove that the spiritually-minded "remnant" was minded to violence and conspiracy, it merely shows what a stern and sterling fiber of loyalty still existed, seasoned and confirmed by trial below the corrupting cults and fashions of the ruling classes. In the tragedy of Amon’s reign, in short, we get a glimpse of the basis of sound principle that lay at the common heart of Israel.
(2) A governor of Samaria (1Ki 22:26); the one to whom the prophet Micaiah was committed as a prisoner by King Ahab, after the prophet had disputed the predictions of the court prophets and foretold the king’s death in battle.
(3) The head of the "children of Solomon’s servants" (Ne 7:59) who returned from captivity; reckoned along with the Nethinim, or temple slaves. Called also Ami (Ezr 2:57).