God uses questions to expose Ammon’s guilt in seizing the territory of Gad during Israel’s weakness, framing their territorial expansion as theft from a nation with legitimate heirs still living.

No direct response is recorded in the text. Jeremiah continues with God’s pronouncement of judgment, declaring that Israel will dispossess those who dispossessed them and that Ammon’s cities will become desolate.

God’s questions expose the injustice of Ammon’s territorial seizure. The double question ‘Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir?’ establishes that Gad’s territory had legitimate claimants still living, making Ammon’s occupation illegal by ancient standards of inheritance. The Hebrew word for ‘heir’ (yarash) emphasizes legal succession rights. God frames His rebuke as questions rather than statements to highlight the absurdity of Ammon’s actions: they behaved as though Israel had been completely exterminated when descendants remained. The final question ‘Why then has Milcom dispossessed Gad?’ drives home the theological offense: Ammon’s god has no rightful claim over territory belonging to Yahweh’s people. This interrogative form sharpens the accusation, forcing recognition that Ammon exploited Israel’s temporary weakness as though it were permanent extinction. The questions carry the weight of divine courtroom prosecution, establishing guilt before pronouncing sentence.