Editing Ammon (section)

===Modern interpretation===
The biblical narrative has traditionally been considered literal fact, but is now generally interpreted as recording a gross popular irony by which the Israelites expressed their loathing of the morality of the Moabites and Ammonites. It has been doubted, however, whether the Israelites would have directed such irony to Lot himself,<ref name=Fenlon>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01431b.htm Fenlon, John Francis. "Ammonites." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 14 April 2016</ref><ref>King [[Joash of Judah]] was one of the four men who pretended to be gods. He was persuaded thereto particularly by the princes, who said to him. "Wert thou not a god thou couldst not come out alive from the Holy of Holies" (Ex R. viii. 3). He was assassinated by two of his servants, one of whom was the son of an Ammonite woman and the other the offspring of a [[Moab]]ite {{bibleverse|2|Chron.|24:26|HE}}; for God said: "Let the descendants of the two ungrateful families chastise the ungrateful Joash" ([[Yalk.]], Ex. 262). Moab and Ammon were the two offspring of [[Lot (biblical person)|Lot]]'s incest with his two daughters as described in {{bibleverse||Gen.|19:30–38|HE}}.</ref> particularly because incest was not explicitly forbidden or stigmatized until the [[Book of Leviticus]], i.e. centuries after the time of Abraham and Lot.