Amorites
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 Palestine, 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, Deut 1:19, Deut 1:20). They seem to have originally occupied the land stretching from the heights west of the Dead Sea (Gen 14:7) to Hebron (13. Comp. 13:8; Deut 3:8; Deut 4:46–48), embracing “all Gilead and all Bashan” (Deut 3:10), with the Jordan valley on the east of the river (Deut 4:49), the land of the “two kings of the Amorites,” Sihon and Og (Deut 31:4; Josh 2:10; Josh 9:10). The five kings of the Amorites were defeated with great slaughter by Joshua (Josh 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 Gen 48:22. Comp. Josh 10:6; Josh 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).
Named in the Bible
The first 20 of 72 verses
- Genesis 14:7 And they returned, and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezontamar.
- Genesis 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
- Genesis 15:21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
- Exodus 3:8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
- Exodus 3:17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
- Exodus 13:5 And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.
- Exodus 23:23 For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.
- Numbers 13:29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.
- Numbers 21:13 From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites: for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
- Numbers 21:21 And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,
- Numbers 21:25 And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof.
- Numbers 21:26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon.
- Numbers 21:29 Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites.
- Numbers 21:31 Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites.
- Numbers 21:32 And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there.
- Numbers 21:34 And the LORD said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.
- Numbers 22:2 And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.
- Numbers 32:33 And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, with the cities thereof in the coasts, even the cities of the country round about.
- Deuteronomy 1:4 After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei:
- Deuteronomy 1:7 Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
