Reference: Amorites
American
A people descended from Emer, the fourth son of Canaan, Ge 10:16. They first peopled the mountains west of the Dead sea, near Hebron; but afterwards extended their limits, and took possession of the finest provinces of Moab and Ammon, on the east between the brooks Jabbok and Arnon, Nu 13:29; 21:21-31; Jos 5:1; Jg 11:13. Moses took this country from their king, Sihon. The lands which the Amorites possessed on this side Jordan were given to the tribe of Judah, and those beyond the Jordan to the tribes of Reuben and Gad. The name Amorite is often taken in Scripture for Canaanite in general, Ge 15:16; Am 2:9. See CANAANITES.
By the expression, "Thy father was an Amorite and thy mother a Hittite." Eze 16:3, God reminds the Jews that they were naturally no more worthy of divine favor than the worst of the heathen Canaanites.
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But in the fourth generation they shall come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
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.
And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through your land. We will not turn into the fields or into the vineyards. We will not drink the waters of the well. We will go along by the king's highway until we are past your borders. read more. And Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his border. But Sihon gathered all his people, and went out against Israel in the wilderness. And he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. And Israel struck him with the edge of the sword and possessed his land from Arnon to Jabbok, even to the sons of Ammon. For the border of the sons of Ammon was strong. And Israel took all these cities. And Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites in Heshbon, and in all its villages. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, even to Arnon. Therefore they who speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon. Let the city of Sihon be built and prepared. For there has gone out a fire from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the high places of Arnon. Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, O people of Chemosh! He has given his sons to be runaways, and his daughters to go into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites. We have cast them down. Heshbon has perished even to Dibon, and we have laid them waste even to Nophah which is to Medeba. So Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.
And it happened, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that Jehovah had dried up the waters of Jordan in front of the sons of Israel until we had passed over, that their hearts melted. Neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the sons of Israel.
And the king of the sons of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even to Jabbok, and to Jordan. Now therefore restore those lands peaceably.
And say, So says the Lord Jehovah to Jerusalem, Your origin and your birth is of the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite.
Easton
highlanders, or hillmen, the name given to the descendants of one of the sons of Canaan (Ge 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" (De 1:7,19-20). They seem to have originally occupied the land stretching from the heights west of the Dead Sea (Ge 14:7. Comp. Ge 13:8; De 3:8; 4:46-48), embracing "all Gilead and all Bashan" (De 3:10), with the Jordan valley on the east of the river (Ge 4:26), the land of the "two kings of the Amorites," Sihon and Og (De 31:4; Jos 2:10; 9:10). The five kings of the Amorites were defeated with great slaughter by Joshua (Jos 10:10). They were again defeated at the waters of Merom by Joshua, who smote them till there were none remaining (Jos 11:8). It is mentioned as a surprising circumstance that in the days of Samuel there was peace between them and the Israelites (1Sa 7:14). The discrepancy supposed to exist between De 1:44 and Nu 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 Ge 34:2 are the "Amorites" of Ge 48:22. Comp. Jos 10:6; 11:19 with 2Sa 21:2; also Nu 14:45 with De 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" (De 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 (De 3:9).
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And there was also a son born to Seth, and he called his name Enos. Then men began to call upon the name of Jehovah.
And Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray you, between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are men, brothers.
And they returned, and came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.
And they returned, and came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.
And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her, and humbled her.
And I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.
And the Amalekites and the Canaanites who were living in that mountain came down and struck them, and beat them down, to Hormah.
And the Amalekites and the Canaanites who were living in that mountain came down and struck them, and beat them down, to Hormah.
Turn and pull up stakes, and enter the hill-country of the Amorites, and to all its neighboring places, in the Arabah in the hill-country, and in the low country, and in the south, and in the shore of the sea, the land of the Canaanites and of Lebanon, to the great river, the river Euphrates.
And when we pulled up stakes from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as Jehovah our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said to you, You have come to the mountain of the Amorites, which Jehovah our God has given unto us.
And the Amorites who lived in that mountain came out against you and chased you, even as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, to Hormah.
And the Amorites who lived in that mountain came out against you and chased you, even as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, to Hormah.
And we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon to Mount Hermon, (the Hermon which the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir). read more. All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, and Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan were taken. For only Og king of Bashan remained of the rest of the giants. Behold! His bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Is it not in Rabbath of the sons of Ammon? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its width, according to the cubit of a man.
beyond Jordan, in the valley over against Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel killed, after they had come forth out of Egypt. And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side Jordan toward the sunrise, read more. from Aroer, on the edge of the river Arnon, even to Mount Zion, which is Hermon,
And Jehovah shall do to them as He did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and to the land of those whom He destroyed.
For we have heard how Jehovah dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.
and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth.
And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Do not withhold your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us. For all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the mountains have gathered against us.
And Jehovah troubled them before Israel, and killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goes up to Beth-horon, and struck them to Azekah, and to Makkedah.
And Jehovah delivered them into the hand of Israel, who struck them and chased them to great Sidon, and to the salt pits, and to the valley of Mizpeh eastward. And they struck them until they left them none remaining.
There was not a city that made peace with the sons of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. All others they took in battle.
And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were given back to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath. And Israel delivered its borders out of the hand of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
And the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. And the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. And the sons of Israel had sworn to them. And Saul sought to kill them in his zeal to the sons of Israel and Judah.
Hastings
An ancient people whose presence can be traced in Palestine and Syria and also in Babylonia. From De 3:9 it appears that their language differed only dialectically from Canaanite, which was Hebrew. This view is confirmed by many proper names from the monuments. They were accordingly of the same race as the Canaanites. Contract tablets of the time of Hammurabi (b.c. 2250) show that Amorites were in Babylonia at that time (cf. Meissner, Altbab. Privatrecht, No. 42). At this period their country was designated by the ideogram MAR-TU. It has long been known that this ideogram stood for Palestine and Syria. At that time, then, the Amorites were already in the West.
Because of the identity of their proper names, it is believed that the Amorites were identical in race with that Semitic wave of immigration into Babylonia which produced the first dynasty of Babylon, the dynasty of Hammurabi (cf. Paton, Syria and Palestine, 25
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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.
From there they pulled up stakes and pitched on the other side of Arnon, in the wilderness that comes out of the borders of the Amorites; for Arnon is in the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
And the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it, and put out the Amorite who was in it.
(the Hermon which the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir).
And I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived on the other side Jordan. And they fought with you, and I gave them into your hand so that you might possess their land. And I destroyed them from before you.
And Jehovah drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We will also serve Jehovah, for He is our God.
And the Amorites forced the sons of Dan into the mountain. For they would not allow them to come down to the valley. But the Amorites desired to stay in Mount Heres in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim. Yet the hand of the house of Joseph was heavy so that they became tributaries. read more. And the border of the Amorites was from the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock and upward.
And I passed by you and looked on you, and, behold, your time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over you and covered your nakedness. And I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Jehovah. And you became Mine.
You are your mother's daughter, who despises her husband and her sons. And you are the sister of your sisters, who despise their husbands and their sons. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from below. Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you forty years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite.
Morish
Am'orites
A people descended from Canaan, son of Ham. Ge 10:16, They dwelt in the mountains, as their name signifies, and were apparently at times in the mountains both east and west of the Jordan. Nu 13:29; Jos 5:1; Jg 1:34-36; 10:8; 1Ki 4:19. Being the most dominant and the most corrupt people or tribe they sometimes represent the Canaanites generally. Ge 15:16; 1Ki 21:26. When Abraham was at Hebron some confederated with him. Ge 14:13. A remnant out of the Gentile nations was thus associated with the heir of promise, though Lot (a type of Israel after the flesh) had separated from him.
When Israel approached the promised land, they were in the east, and refused to let Israel pass; but they were overcome, their cities taken, and the people slain, with Sihon their king. Nu 21:21-26; De 2:24; Am 2:9-10. Some must have escaped, for we read of them later, and one of the controversies Jehovah had with Israel was for worshipping their gods. Ezr 9:1-2. Solomon made them tributary. 1Ki 9:20-21; 2Ch 8:7-8. The Gibeonites were a remnant of the Amorites. 2Sa 21:2. After this nothing is heard of them. The low state of Jerusalem (Judah) by nature is described by stating her origin, her father being an Amorite and her mother a Hittite, but God in grace had compassion upon her in her degradation, and raised her into great glory; though, alas, she was shamefully unfaithful. Eze 16:3-43.
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And there came one who had escaped. And he told Abram the Hebrew, for he lived in the plains of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner. And these had a covenant with Abram.
But in the fourth generation they shall come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
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.
And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through your land. We will not turn into the fields or into the vineyards. We will not drink the waters of the well. We will go along by the king's highway until we are past your borders. read more. And Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his border. But Sihon gathered all his people, and went out against Israel in the wilderness. And he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. And Israel struck him with the edge of the sword and possessed his land from Arnon to Jabbok, even to the sons of Ammon. For the border of the sons of Ammon was strong. And Israel took all these cities. And Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites in Heshbon, and in all its villages. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, even to Arnon.
Rise up, set out and cross over the river Arnon. Behold! I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to possess, and fight with him in battle.
And it happened, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that Jehovah had dried up the waters of Jordan in front of the sons of Israel until we had passed over, that their hearts melted. Neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the sons of Israel.
And the Amorites forced the sons of Dan into the mountain. For they would not allow them to come down to the valley. But the Amorites desired to stay in Mount Heres in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim. Yet the hand of the house of Joseph was heavy so that they became tributaries. read more. And the border of the Amorites was from the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock and upward.
And that year they troubled and oppressed the sons of Israel; all the sons of Israel on the other side of Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead, for eighteen years.
And the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. And the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. And the sons of Israel had sworn to them. And Saul sought to kill them in his zeal to the sons of Israel and Judah.
And all the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of the sons of Israel, their sons who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel also were not able to destroy completely, on those Solomon laid a tribute of bond-service to this day.
And at the end of these things, the rulers came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands. But they are doing according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons. So the holy seed has mixed themselves with the people of those lands. Yes, the hand of the leaders and overseers has been chief in this sin.
And say, So says the Lord Jehovah to Jerusalem, Your origin and your birth is of the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite. And as for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you. And you were not salted, nor swaddled at all. read more. No eye pitied you, to do any of these to you, to have compassion on you. But you were thrown out into the open field, because your life was despised in the day that you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you in your blood, Live! Yes, I said to you in your blood, Live! I have caused you to multiply like the bud of the field, and you are grown, and you are great; and you come in the finest ornaments. Your breasts are formed, and hair is grown, yet you were naked and bare. And I passed by you and looked on you, and, behold, your time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over you and covered your nakedness. And I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Jehovah. And you became Mine. And I washed you with water; I washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. I also clothed you with embroidered work, and I shod you with dugong sandals. And I wrapped you in fine linen, and I covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments, and I put bracelets on your hands and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. And you were adorned with gold and silver; and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered work. You ate fine flour and honey and oil; and you were exceedingly beautiful. And you advanced to regal estate. And your name went out among the nations, because of your beauty; for it was perfect in My beauty, which I had put on you, says the Lord Jehovah. But you trusted in your beauty, and played the harlot because of your name, and poured out your fornications on all who passed by; it was his. And you took from your clothes and adorned your high places with different colors, and fornicated on them, such as had not come, nor shall be. And you have taken beautiful things of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made images of males, and fornicated with them. And you took your embroidered dresses and covered them, and you have given to their face My oil and My incense. Also My food which I gave you, fine flour and oil and honey with which I fed you, you have given it to their face for a soothing aroma. And it happened, says the Lord Jehovah. And you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to Me, and you gave these to them for food. Are your fornications small? You have slaughtered My sons and gave them to cause these to pass through the fire for them. And in all your hateful deeds and your fornications you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and squirming in your blood. Woe, woe to you says the Lord Jehovah! For it happened after all your evil, that you have also built yourself a mound, and you have made yourself a high place in every street. You have built your high place at the head of every way, and have made your beauty to be despised, and have opened your feet to everyone who passed by, and have multiplied your fornications. You have also whored with the Egyptians, your neighbors great of flesh, and have multiplied your fornications to provoke Me to anger. And, behold, therefore I have stretched out My hand over you, and drew back your portion. And I gave you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your wicked way. You have whored with the Assyrians, without your being satisfied; yea, you whored and yet you were not satisfied. And your whoredom is idolatry in the land of Canaan, to the Chaldean, and yet you were not satisfied with this. How weak is your heart, says the Lord Jehovah, since you do all these, the work of a woman, an overbearing harlot; in that you build your mound at the head of every way, and make your high place in every street. Yet you have not been as a harlot, scorning wages. Like the adulterous wife, instead of her husband, she takes strangers. They give a gift to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them to come to you from all around, for your fornication. And in you was the opposite from those women in your fornications, since no one whores after you, and in your giving wages, and hire is not given to you. In this you are opposite. Therefore, O harlot, hear the Word of Jehovah. So says the Lord Jehovah: Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness was bared in your fornications with your lovers, and with all the idols of your abominations, and by the blood of your sons whom you gave to them; behold, therefore I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have been pleased, even all whom you loved, with all whom you have hated; I will even gather them against you from all around, and will uncover your nakedness to them, and they will see all your nakedness. And I will judge you with judgments of adulteresses, and with shedders of blood. And I will give you blood and fury and jealousy. And I will also give you into their hand, and they will tear down your mound, and will demolish your high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes, and shall take your beautiful things, and leave you naked and bare. They shall also raise a company against you, and they shall stone you with stones, and cut you with their swords. And they shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. And I will make you stop whoring; and also, you shall not give hire again. And I will make My fury to rest against you, and My jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be quiet and will be angry no more. Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have troubled Me in all these things; so, behold, I will also repay your way on your head, says the Lord Jehovah. And you shall not commit this wickedness above all your abominations.
Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from below. Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you forty years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite.
Watsons
AMORITES, the descendants of Amori, or Haemorri, or Amorrhaeus, Ge 10:16, the fourth son of Canaan, whose first possessions were in the mountains of Judea, among the other families of Canaan: but, growing strong above their fellows, and impatient of confinement within the narrow boundaries of their native district, they passed the Jordan, and extended their conquests over the finest provinces of Moab and Ammon; seizing and maintaining possession of that extensive and almost insulated portion of country included between the rivers Jordan, Jabbok, and Arnon. This was the kingdom, and Heshbon the capital, of the Amorites, under Sihon their king, when the Israelites, in their way from Egypt, requested a passage through their country. This request, however, Sihon refused; and came out against them with all his force, when he was slain, his people extirpated, and his kingdom taken possession of by the Israelites. It was subsequently divided between the tribes of Reuben and Gad, Nu 13:29; 21:13,25; Jos 5:1; 11:3; Jg 11:19,22.
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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.
From there they pulled up stakes and pitched on the other side of Arnon, in the wilderness that comes out of the borders of the Amorites; for Arnon is in the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
And Israel took all these cities. And Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites in Heshbon, and in all its villages.
And it happened, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that Jehovah had dried up the waters of Jordan in front of the sons of Israel until we had passed over, that their hearts melted. Neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the sons of Israel.
and to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon, in the land of Mizpeh.
And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon. And Israel said to him, We pray you, let us pass through your land to my place.
And they possessed all the borders of the Amorites, from Arnon even to Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to Jordan.