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4,000
Years of History
Abdullah ibn
Hussein-grandfather of
today's King Hussein-on
the throne as emir or prince.
Our story begins more !han
38 centuries ago, with two
young boys, Moab and
Ben-ammi. They were the
two sons of Lot. The
patriarch Abraham was their
great uncle. Their births in
the 19th century B.C. are
recorded in Genesis 19.
Philadelphia alter its
conqueror, Ptolemy
Philadelphus (3rd century
B.C.), the Macedonian ruler
of Egypt. Today the city is
known as Amman, Jordan's
capital.
moved in, holding sway until
the end of World War l.
Britain ended its mandate
early in 1946 and
In Bible times, the
progeny of Moab and
Ben-ammi-the Moabites
and Ammonites- lived in the
lands east of the Dead Sea.
Their descendants merged
over the centuries with
Arabs.
Before the coming of the
Romans to Jordan, a people
known as the Nabataeans
held sway over the area,
headquartered in the rock
city of Petra. Al the height
Jordan was an importan!
theater of action in World
War l. Many of the exploits
of the legendary Lawrence
of Arabia took place on its
sands. T.E. Lawrence was a
British officer who assisted
the Arabs in their revolt
against the Turks.
When the war ended, the
British disregarded their
earlier promises
of
full
independence for the Arabs
and instead divided up the
Middle East with the French.
The area of today's
Jordan-then called
Transjordan-was included
in the Palestine mandate lo
Britain.
recognized Abdullah as king
of independent Transjordan.
In May, 1948, Transjordan
joined the Arab League in its
war against the newly
formed State of Israel.
During that war the
Jordanian army occupied
the Old City of Jerusalem
and the West Bank of the
Jordan River.
of their power, the
Nabataeans controlled a
kingdom extending as far
north as Damascus in Syria.
The ancient capital of the
people of Ammon was
Rabbah or Rabbath-Ammon.
lt
was before the walls of
this besieged city that Uriah
the Hittite, husband of
Bathsheba, died in battle at
the order of King David of
Israel (11 Sam. 11).
Rabbah was later called
The region of modern-day
Jordan was annexed by the
Roman Empire in the 2nd
century A.D. Moslem Arabs
sweeping out of Arabia
conquered the land in the
600s A.D. Following the
Crusades it fell to the
Mamelukes of Egypt. In the
1500s the Ottoman Turks
The British government
unilaterally proclaimed a
separate administration for
Transjordan in 1920. In
1921 the British placed
In 1950, following the
annexation of Arab Palestine
by Transjordan, the country
was renamed the Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan. The
following year, King Abdullah
was assassinated in
Jerusalem. In 1952,
Abdullah's grandson, King
Hussein, succeeded to the
throne that today, nearly
three decades later, is the
widely respected focal point
of a new and modern Jordan.
the
major
threat wi ll come not
from within the region itself but
from the outside.
An ou tside
power, Bible prophecy reveals, wi ll
intervene mil itari ly in an attempt to
impose
its brand of peace on the
st r ife- torn Middle East!
Longt ime readers of
The Plain
Truth
know t hat prophecy foretells
a comi ng fin al re birth of t he
ancient Roman Empire in Europe.
T his end- t ime confederation of 1O
nat ions or groups of nations- to
emerge
just ahead-wíll
be led by
a powerful personality known in
Bible language as the " beast" (Rev.
17). Wr ite for ou r free booklet
Who l s the Beast?
for full detai ls.
In the a nc ient prophecies of
Dan iel, the beast is known as the
"king of the nor t h." T he 11 t h
c hapter of the book of Daniel
reveals that "at the t ime of the
end" many nations and peoples of
the Middle East wi ll be over thrown
by the intervention of this coming
reviva) of the Roman Empire in the
region (verses 40-43).
This is a clear prophecy for
our
da
y!
44
Notice: " He [the leader of this
last end-time reviva! of the Roman
Empi re] shall enter also into the
glorious land [the Holy Land], and
many countries
[in t he Midd le
East] shall be overthrown .. . "
(verse 41 ).
Cont inu ing: "He shall stretch
for th his hand also upon the ecuo–
tries: and the land of Egypt sha ll
not escape" (verse 42).
Large segments of the Middle
East wi ll suffer occupation. Israel í
and Arab al ike will feel the sting of
the beast's mi litary might!
But what of J ordan?
Grave Error
Notice the latter half of Daniel
11 :41 : " ... but these shall
escape
out of his [the beast's) hand, even
Edom, and Moab, and the chief of
the children of Ammon."
In prophecy, the geographic areas
of Edom, Moab and Ammon refer
unmistakably to modern-day Jordan.
Jordan, Daniel declares, wi ll
escape
occupation by the beast power!
But t he story does not end there.
The prophets J eremiah and Eze-
kiel, among others, provide further
details. Here is what they reveal:
In the wake of intervention in
the Middle East by the leader of
this coming Roman Empire, the
Palestinians and others in J ordan
wi ll make an understandable bu t
crucial mistake. This mistake will
far ecl ipse in its effects the t ragic
miscalculation of 1967, when Jor–
dan entered the war against Israel
des pite urgent appeals by t he
United States and the State of
Israel itsel f.
This future mistake wi ll be to
rejoice
in the occupation, by
th~
revived Roman Empi re in Europe,
of the city of J erusalem.
It will be this rejoici ng over the
predicament of the S tate of Israel
that will bring about the fulfillment
of the prophecies of Ezekiel 25:3-
11 once again. What happened to
ancient Moab and Ammon will be
repeated in modern Jordan. Much
of Bible prophecy is dual. What
anciently occurred was only a type
of the fi nal fulfi llment in this clos–
ing age of human civilization.
T his prophecy of Ezekiel reveals
The PLAIN TRUTH