Amorrhites is a name of doubtful origin and meaning, used to designate an ancient people often mentioned in the Old Testament. Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh. ...

It is by many supposed to be derived from a word akin to the Hebrew ’Amîr and to mean "mountaineers", "highlanders"; but ’Amîr is "summit", not "mountain". The name is much older than any part of the Bible and even much older than the Hebrew people itself; the attempt to fix its meaning by Hebrew usage and the local habitation of the Amorrhites in Hebrew times can thus be regarded as misdirected effort. That some of the Amorrhites, thousands of years after the name came to be used, dwelt in mountains can no longer be judged as serious proof that Amorrhite means highlander; its signification still remains obscure. It is worthy of note, nevertheless, that the Amrrhites of biblical and pre-biblical times have usually been found in mountainous districts, although those best known are the Amorrhites of the Jordan Valley, whose sway, however, extended to the mountains east of the Jordan. Northern part of the Great Rift Valley as seen from space (NASA) The Jordan River The Jordan River (Hebrew: נהר הירדן nehar hayarden, Arabic: نهر الأردن nahr al-urdun) is a river in Southwest Asia flowing through the Great Rift Valley into the Dead Sea. ...

Extent

In application, the name has a wider and narrower extent in the Bible, varying in a manner the reason for which cannot often be discovered.

At times it seems conterminous with Chanaanite, and designates all the inhabitants of the Land of Chanaan before the advent of Israel. Thus the Prophet Amos calls Palestine the land of the Amorrhite, and the race which Israel cast out was the Amorrhite (ii, 9, 10); this usage prevails also in Genesis, xlviii, 22, and Jos., xxiv, 15, 18. The same may be gathered from various passages where certain Chanaanitish races or tribes have at one time a specific name and at another are classed as Amorrhite; thus, the inhabitants of Gabaon are called indifferently Hevites and Amorrhites (Joshua 11:19; 2 Samuel 21:2), and of Jerusalem, either Jebusites or Amorrhites (Joshua 15:63, 18:28; Judges 1:21, and Joshua 10:5-6, and Ezekiel 16:3). The Amorrhites of Genesis, xiv, 13, are Hethites (Hittites) in Gen., xxiii, and the Philistines are likewise deemed Amorrhites (1 Samuel 7:14). While the name therefore seems applicable to all the non-Israelitish peoples of Chanaan, it is to be noted that it generally has a lesser extension than Chanaanite, and the Amorrhites themselves are sometimes regarded as only a branch of the Chanaanite family (Genesis 10:16). This article is about the land called Canaan. ... Panoramic view from Mt. ... Jebus redirects here. ... Hittites, Hethites or Children of Heth are English terms used for a people mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament, Tanakh), which apparently lived in or near Palestine from the time of Abraham (presumably between 2000 BC and 1500 BC) to the time of Ezra after the return... Map showing the location of Philistine land and cities of Gaza, Ashdod, and Ascalon Map of the southern Levant, c. ...

Another usage distinguishes sharply between Chanaanites and Amorrhites, putting both on a level as tribes dwelling with several others in Palestine, the Amorrhites, when located, inhabiting the mountains of central and southern Palestine (Deuteronomy 1:7, 19, 27, 44; Genesis 14:7, 13; 15:21; Joshua 10:5, 10:12, 24:8; Exodus 3:8, etc.). There is no evidence that the Amorrhites at any stage of their history occupied the coast lands.

Again, the name is applied to the race dwelling on the east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan, from the Arnon to Mount Hermon, and extending eastward to Jazer and Hesebon (Numbers 21:13, 24, 32; Deuteronomy 3:8, 9), comprising the territory of Sebon, King of Hesebon, and Og, King of Basan (Bashan), which later constituted the entire possessions of the Hebrews east of the Jordan. The Dead Sea (Arabic: ‎; Hebrew: ) is both the lowest point on the Earth at 418 metres (1,371 ft) below sea level and falling[2], and the deepest hypersaline lake in the world at 330 m (1,083 ft) deep and 799 m (2,621 ft) below sea level. ... A river and wadi of eastern Palestine, known in modern times in Arabic as Wadi al-Mawjib. ... Mount Hermon (top of photo) supplies the bulk of the Jordan River water Mount Hermon (Arabic: Jabalu sh-Shaykh) is a mountain in the Anti-Lebanon range, on the border between Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. ... According to several books of the Old Testament, Og (pronounced , , or ; meaning gigantic) was an ancient Amorite king of Bashan who, along with his sons and army, was slain by Moses and his men at the battle of Edrei (probably modern day Dara, Syria). ...

These variations in the biblical use of the term Amorrhite –as designating all the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, or only one part or tribe dwelling in the mountainous districts of the centre and south, or, finally, those east of the Jordan– are found often side by side, and cannot easily be accounted for; however, the application to all the inhabitants of Palestine generally occurs when it is question of the idolatrous rites of the ancient inhabitants, or when they are viewed together as a people doomed for their iniquties to be supplanted by the Israelites, in which cases the Amorrhites may be taken as the most fitting type, though they are but part of the population and in reality confined to the districts implied by the other uses of the term.

The name of the Amorrhite also lingered in Hebrew tradition as representative of gigantic stature and warlike character, and is likely to be employed when the writer is thinking of the ancient inhabitants as Israel's foes in battle (Deuteronomy 2:11, 20; 3:11, 13), while precisely the same population under peaceful conditions is called Chanaanite. It has been noted by upholders of the documentary theory that the writer of the Elohistic document seems to use both terms as coextensive.

The above usual account of the variations is noteworthy for the view of the Amhorrite history which it embodies; yet it may well be that the name, instead of being first the name of a southern or trans-Jordanic tribe and extended in time to many various peoples, is on the contrary a survival of an ancient usage for all the inhabitants of Palestine and bordering countries. As early as 3800 B. C., some believe, the Babylonians called Syria and Palestine the land of the Amorrhite. Centuries later (1400 B. C.), in the Tel el-Amarna tablets, the name is applied to the inland country north and north-east of Palestine; Egyptian inscriptions use the term for the same territory, but extend it to the countries eastward as far as the Orontes. In ninth-century Assyrian inscriptions northern and southern Palestine are included under the name. The term, then, may originally or very early have been applied to all this territory; or more likely it was used first to designate the country north of Palestine and later extended south and east. If these Amorrhites of the north, however, are to be considered one in race with the Amorrhites of the Bible, no light has yet been shed upon their migrations into central and southern Palestine or beyond the Jordan. For the present, that part of their history rests in obscurity, though conjectures are plentiful.

Race

The close relationship of the Amorrhite with the races or tribes usually classed as Chanaanitish is asserted in Genesis, x, 15, 16, and implied in numerous passages where Amorrhite is used in place of Chanaanite, Jebusite or a cognate name. That these tribes are Semitic in origin is doubted by many, but their language, religion and institutions are unquestionably Semitic. Genesis (Greek: Γένεσις, having the meanings of birth, creation, cause, beginning, source and origin) is the first book of the Torah, the first book of the Tanakh and also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. ... In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical Shem, Hebrew: שם, translated as name, Arabic: سام) was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. ...

The Amorrhite is represented as the fourth son of Chanaan, son of Ham. Sayce tries to connect them with a North African Hamitic race, the Libyans, mainly on the strength of the facial resemblance he discovers between them in one Egyptian sculpture of the time of Rameses III. This resemblance is not elsewhere borne out and in any case must be considered a precarious foundation for such an hypothesis. No details have come down to us which will enable us to distinguish the Amorrhites from their kinsfolk (see Chanaan), except that they seem to have been remarkable for their stature, strength and wickedness. They dwelt in walled cities and were warlike in spirit. Osirid statues of Ramses III at Karnak. ... This article is about the land called Canaan. ...

The Amorrhites and Israel

Though a very ancient race, the Amorrhites have left but a slight mark on history in pre-biblical times. They were not the original inhabitants of Palestine, though the time and circumstances of their advent are unknown. They first appear in the Bible as inhabitants of southern Palestine, where they are defeated by Chodorlahomor and his allies (Genesis 14:7).

The Israelites find them in the same region when they attempt, contrary to the divine command, to enter Palestine from the south and are repulsed (Numbers 13 and 14). About this period certain tribes of Amorrhites gain possession of the land east of the Jordan; so there the Israelites next come in contact with the Amorrhites and ask permission of Sehon, their king, to pass through his dominions, promising to do no damage and to pay for whatever they take on the way. The request being refused, war follows. Sehon is defeated and slain, and the Israelites take possession of his territory from the Arnon to the Jeboc. Crossing the Jeboc, they inflict the same fate upon Og, King of Basan, and his territory (Numbers 21; Deuteronomy 2 and 3). These lands, which were awarded to the tribes of Ruben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasses, extended from the Arnon as far north as Mount Hermon (Deuteronomy 4:46-49). Reuben (רְאוּבֵן, Standard Hebrew Rəʾuven, Tiberian Hebrew Rəʾûḇēn) is the first-born son of Jacob and the founder of the Tribe of Reuben, as related in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible. ... Gad can refer to: Gad (see Gad Guard), a metallic cube artifact that figures prominantly in the anime Gad Guard Gad (Bible character), the sixth son of Jacob as related in Genesis 29 - 30 Tribe of Gad, one of the Hebrew tribes founded by Gad GAD as a three-letter...

When, according to the Bible, Josue had crossed the Jordan and with divine aid had gained several signal victories, fear fell upon the neighbouring Amorrhites. The inhabitants of Gabaon (Gibeon), an Amorrhite city, yielded to Josue, which enraged their brethren. They were accordingly attacked and besieged by a confederation of the five Amorrhite kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jerimoth, Lachis and Eglon, and sent for aid to Josue, who, coming to their rescue, put the Amorrhites to flight, cut them off in great numbers, captured and slaughtered the five Amorrhite kings and hung their bodies upon trees till the evening (Joshua 10). On this occasion Josue commanded the sea and moon to stand still (for various opinions on this passage, see Josue). This victory secured to Israel the tenure of Palestine. This article is about the place in the Middle East. ... Jerimoth (sometimes spelled Jeremoth) in the Hebrew Bible is the name of eight men: In 1 Chronicles 7:7, Jerimoth is a son of Bela. ... A Biblical name, Eglon refers to either: A Canaanite city, whose king Debir joined a confederacy against Gibeon when that city made peace with Israel. ...

The Amorrhites were not driven out of Palestine nor exterminated. Many of them intermarried with the Hebrews and contaminated them by their idolatries and vices (Judges 3; Ezra 9). In the time of Solomon, and even of Esdras and Nehemias, they are still distinguished from their conquerors, but are finally merged into the general population of Palestine. Artists depiction of Solomons court (Ingobertus, c. ...

Source

• This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia. [1]