The oracle begins with a long-standing dispute between Israel and the Ammonites about the land that had been allocated by Moses to Reuben and Gad. Ammon had dispossessed Gad during the Assyrian invasion of Israel in 734 BC. The Lord questions this dispossession of the land by asking, Has Israel no sons? Has he no heirs?
The implication of these questions is that it is the Lord who gave the land to the tribe of Gad and they have not left or ceased to exist, so how could Ammon take the land from them. The name Milcom
is the national god of Ammon and the name means king.
1 If the sovereign Lord has given the land to his covenant people, then how can the followers of Milcom take it away and settle in its cities?
1 Sur les enfants d'Ammon.Ainsi parle l'Eternel: Israël n'a-t-il point de fils? N'a-t-il point d'héritier? Pourquoi Malcom possède-t-il Gad, Et son peuple habite-t-il ses villes?