amorites Summary and Overview

highlanders, or hillmen, the name given to the descendants of one of the sons of Canaan (Gen. 14:7), called Amurra or Amurri in the Assyrian and Egyptian inscriptions. On the early Babylonian monuments all Syria, including Israel, is known as "the land of the Amorites." The southern slopes of the mountains of Judea are called the "mount of the Amorites" (Deut. 1:7, 19, 20). They seem to have originally occupied the land stretching from the heights west of the Dead Sea (Gen. 14:7) to Hebron (13. Compare 13:8; Deut. 3:8; 4:46-48), embracing "all Gilead and all Bashan" (Deut. 3:10), with the Jordan valley on the east of the river (4:49), the land of the "two kings of the Amorites," Sihon and Og (Deut. 31:4; Josh. 2:10; 9:10). The five kings of the Amorites were defeated with great slaughter by Joshua (10:10). They were again defeated at the waters of Merom by Joshua, who smote them till there were none remaining (Josh. 11:8). It is mentioned as a surprising circumstance that in the days of Samuel there was peace between them and the Israelites (1 Sam. 7:14). The discrepancy supposed to exist between Deut. 1:44 and Num. 14:45 is explained by the circumstance that the terms "Amorites" and "Amalekites" are used synonymously for the "Canaanites." In the same way we explain the fact that the "Hivites" of Gen. 34:2 are the "Amorites" of 48:22. Compare Josh. 10:6; 11:19 with 2 Sam. 21:2; also Num. 14:45 with Deut. 1:44. The Amorites were warlike mountaineers. They are represented on the Egyptian monuments with fair skins, light hair, blue eyes, aquiline noses, and pointed beards. They are supposed to have been men of great stature; their king, Og, is described by Moses as the last "of the remnant of the giants" (Deut. 3:11). Both Sihon and Og were independent kings. Only one word of the Amorite language survives, "Shenir," the name they gave to Mount Hermon (Deut. 3:9).

Amorite, the Amorites (dwellers on the summits, mountaineers), one of the chief nations who possessed the land of Canaan before its conquest by the Israelites. As dwelling on the elevated portions of the country, they are contrasted with the Canaanites, who were the dwellers in the lowlands; and the two thus formed the main broad divisions of the Holy Land, #Nu 13:29| and see Gene 14:7; Deut 1:7,20 "mountain of the Amorites;" #De 1:44; Jos 5:1; 10:6; 11:3| They first occupied the barren heights west of the Dead Sea, at the place called afterwards Engedi. From this point they stretched west to Hebron. At the date of the invasion of the country, Sihon, their then king, had taken the rich pasture land south of the Jabbok. This rich tract, bounded by the Jabbok on the north, the Arnon on the south, the Jordan on the west and "the wilderness" on the east, #Jud 11:21,22| was, perhaps in the most special sense the "land of the Amorites," #Nu 21:31; Jos 12:2,3; 13:10; Jud 11:21,22| but their possessions are distinctly stated to have extended to the very foot of Hermon, #De 3:8; 4:48| embracing "Gilead and all Bashan," #De 3:10| with the Jordan valley on the east of the river. #De 4:49| After the conquest of Canaan nothing of importance is heard of the Amorites in the Bible.

THE AM'ORITES (mountaineers), a Syrian tribe descended from Canaan, and among the most formidable of the tribes with whom the Israelites contended. Gen 10:16. They were of gigantic stature and great courage. Am 2:9. They first inhabited the hill-country south of Jerusalem, the barren and rocky land in which David took refuge; but from there they went into better possessions, and at the time of the Conquest they inhabited one of the most fertile districts of the country, being bounded on three sides by the rivers Arnon, Jabbok, and Jordan. See Ammonites. The Israelites asked permission of their king to travel through their territory, promising to injure nothing, not even to draw water from their wells; but it was refused. The Amorites collected and attempted to oppose their progress, but were defeated, and their territory taken and divided between the tribes of Reuben and Gad. Josh 13:15, 2 Chr 11:21, Jud 6:24, Gen 1:27. Nothing more is heard of them in the Bible, except occasionally as moving in small bands.

The Amorite. Always singular in the Hebrew, "the dweller on the summits." The fourth son of Canaan, Ham's son. The Hamitic races were the earliest developed, and most brilliant, but had the greatest tendency to degeneracy, because averse to true religion, the great preserver of man. The tendency of the children of Japhet was to improve, that of the children of Shem to be stationary. As the Amorites, Hittites, and Jehusites were the highlanders, so were the Canaanites the lowlanders, by the sea W., and the Jordan E. Compare Numbers 13:29; Deuteronomy 1:44. As early as Genesis 14:7; Genesis 14:18, they occupied the rugged heights afterward called Engedi (fount of the kid); then Hazezon Tamar (the cutting of the palm tree). Thence they stretched W. to Hebron. They subsequently crossed the Jordan eastward. Sihon took the pasture land S. of Jabbok, and drove Moab across the Amon (Numbers 21:13; Numbers 21:26-81). Israel, approaching from the S.E., was refused leave to pass through his land to the fords of Jordan. Sihon, having marched against them, was killed with his sons and people (Deuteronomy 2:32-37), and his land and cattle taken by them. The tract bounded by the Jabbok on the N., Arnon S., Jordan W., wilderness E. (Judges 11:21-22), was specially the "land of the Amorites"; but their possessions embraced all Gilead and Bashan, to Hermon (Deuteronomy 3:8; Deuteronomy 4:48-49), "the land of the two kings of the Amorites," Sihon and Og (Deuteronomy 31:4). As the Amorites (highlanders) were the most powerful, the other Canaanites (even lowlanders) were sometimes called by their name. Thus Mature in Hebron, of Genesis 13:18, is the "Amorite" in Genesis 14:13; "Hittite" in Genesis 23; "Canaanite" in Judges 1:10. The Hivites (Genesis 34:2) are called Amorites in Genesis 48:22. Jerusalem is "Amorite" in Joshua 10:5, but in Joshua 15:63 "Jebusite." Grove, in Smith's Dictionary, conjectures that "Amorite" expresses locality (highlander), not distinction of race; because the name is spread over a wide area, no connection appears between the Amorites on the E. and those W. of Jordan, Sihon and Og are both "kings of the Amorites," and yet their territories are separate. No individual Amorites are named except these two kings and Abraham's three confederates (Genesis 14:13). No traces appear of any distinctive government, worship, or customs, different from the other Canaanite nations. The Amorite name Senir (not Shenir) for mount Hermon (Deuteronomy 3:9) is mentioned; but this may be the Canaanite term, as distinguished from the Hebrew "Hermon" (lofty peak) and the Phoenician "Sirion" (glittering as a breast-plate; senir too means a breast-plate, from a root, "clatter," the snowy round top glittering like a breast-plate). Mountaineers are usually the most warlike: hence, undeterred by Joshua's slaughter of the five kings "dwelling in the mountains" (Joshua 10:5, etc.), they in the next age drove the children of Dan to the mountains, themselves keeping possession of the plain, as well as mount Heres (Judges 1:34-35); compare also Amos 2:9-10.