Amorites

The Amorites were a Semitic people who lived throughout the Fertile Crescent of the ancient Near East at the beginning of the second millennium BC. The Fertile Crescent was a region that included Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine.

The Bible first mentions the Amorites as descendants of Canaan in a list of ancient peoples (Genesis 10:16; compare 1 Chronicles 1:13–16). These people were nomadic, with some migrating from the Syrian Desert into Mesopotamia and others into Palestine.

Akkadian inscriptions mention a people called the Amurru, the Akkadian form of the Sumerian name Mar-tu. Their name may have come from a storm god. These inscriptions describe them as living outside the settled city culture of Mesopotamia.

The Amorites conquered the Sumerians and later gained control of most of Mesopotamia. They took the city of Mari, on the upper Euphrates River, around 2000 BC. Eshnunna fell soon afterward, Babylon by about 1830 BC, and Assur around 1750 BC.

Farther west, Amorites had lived in Palestine and Syria as early as the third millennium BC. Egyptian texts from the early nineteenth century BC show that more groups of Amorite nomads were entering Canaan at that time. Many of their names were similar to Amorite names found in upper Mesopotamia.

The Mari tablets contain names that are the same as, or similar to, names in the Genesis accounts of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. People named Jacob, Abraham, Levi, and Ishmael were known at Mari. Names similar to Gad and Dan have also been found there. Benjamin was the name of a tribe, and Nahor was the name of a city near Haran.

According to Genesis, Abraham lived in Haran for many years before going to Canaan. Jacob later spent twenty years there and married two women from Haran.

The Amorites are important in the Old Testament because they were among the peoples who stood in the way of Israel’s settlement in Canaan, the Promised Land, after the exodus from Egypt.

When God called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, he described Canaan as a good land occupied by the Amorites and other peoples (Exodus 3:8, 17; 13:5). While the Israelites were in the wilderness, God promised to defeat these nations and drive them out of the land (23:23; 33:2). The Israelites were warned not to make agreements with these peoples, marry them, or accept their worship of idols (34:11–17).

When spies were sent into the land, they found Amalekites in the south, Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites in the northern mountains and west of the Jordan River, and Canaanites by the sea and along the Jordan (Numbers 13:25–29). At that time, there were also Amorites east of the Jordan (Numbers 21:13).

God instructed Israel to conquer the Amorite mountains west of the Jordan, to the Mediterranean Sea (Deuteronomy 1:7). When they arrived at Kadesh-barnea, they were at the foot of those mountains (Deuteronomy 1:19–20). But the people complained, fearing that the Amorites would slaughter them after God had brought them from Egypt. The spies' reports painted the Amorites as a tough, tall people, greater than the Israelites (Deuteronomy 1:26–28).

At first, the Israelites refused to trust God and go in to the land. So God told them to turn around and head back into the wilderness. Then they changed their minds, stubbornly attacked the Amorites against God’s command, and were badly beaten (Deuteronomy 1:34–44).

Finally, after 38 more years in the wilderness, the Israelites faced the Amorites again, this time on the east side of the Dead Sea (Numbers 21:13). The Amorite king, Sihon, refused to let them pass through his land. The Israelites were positioned at the Arnon River, which flows into the Dead Sea about two-thirds of the way up its eastern shore.

Two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, controlled the land east of the Jordan River. Israel first faced Sihon. His city, Heshbon, was east of the northern end of the Dead Sea (Numbers 21:21–26). Sihon himself had taken this land from the Moabites. Moses knew of Sihon’s reputation and quoted a poem boasting of Sihon’s victory over Moab (Numbers 21:27–30).

Even so, the Israelites defeated Sihon and destroyed his kingdom from Dibon, about 6.4 kilometers (four miles) north of the Arnon River, to Medeba, about 11.2 kilometers (seven miles) south of Heshbon. Farther north, Israel also defeated King Og (Numbers 21:31–35). When King Balak of Moab heard about these victories, he was terrified (Numbers 22:2–3).

Moses reminded the people that by relying on God’s promises, they had taken all the land of the Amorites east of the Jordan (Deuteronomy 2:24–3:10). The conquered territory was given to the tribes of Gad and Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh (Numbers 32:33).

Then, 40 years after the exodus began, Israel was on the east side of the Jordan. They had dispossessed the two great Amorite nations there (Deuteronomy 1:1–4). But there were other Amorite kingdoms in the hills west of the Jordan, along with other nations (Deuteronomy 7:1–2). They were to be destroyed just as Sihon and Og had been (Deuteronomy 31:3–6).

The victory of Israel east of the Jordan was so well-known that Rahab and others in Jericho, west of the Jordan, were aware of it and were afraid (Joshua 2:8–11). The Israelites crossed the Jordan and took Jericho but were initially defeated at the smaller city of Ai in the hill country west of Jericho. They immediately assumed they would be destroyed by the Amorites in those hills (Joshua 7:7).

However, the Israelites regained God’s favor and defeated Ai. This victory impressed the kingdoms west of the Jordan. They were in the hills, valleys, and coastlands up to Lebanon. Those kingdoms allied to fight Joshua (Joshua 9:1–2).

Gibeon, an Amorite city, was 11.2 km (7 miles) southwest of Ai. It made peace with Israel, which scared the remaining kings (Joshua 10:1–2). Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, was the leader of the Amorite kings west of the Jordan (Joshua 10:3). Jerusalem was only 12.8 kilometers (eight miles) southeast of Gibeon. Adoni-zedek called the kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon, all within 80.5 kilometers (50 miles) of Jerusalem, to fight Gibeon and Joshua (Joshua 10:3–5).

Joshua came to Gibeon’s defense and routed the Amorites, chasing them to the northwest and southwest. The Lord fought for Israel. He rained hailstones on the Amorites at Azekah, southwest of Gibeon. He made the sun stand still to give them a longer day for battle (Joshua 10:6–14).

In the far north, Jabin, king of Hazor, rallied the Canaanites and remaining Amorites all the way north to Mount Hermon (Joshua 11:1–5). But they too were overcome (Joshua 11:10–23). Toward the end of Joshua’s time as Israel's leader, he reminded the people that it was the Lord who had given them the land of the Amorites (Joshua 24:1–18).

After Israel occupied Canaan, the Amorites still in the land chased Dan's tribe into the mountains. They continued to live near Aijalon, 27.4 kilometers (17 miles) west of Jerusalem. They also held the slopes toward the south end of the Dead Sea (Judges 1:34–36). During the period of the judges, the Amorites and their gods posed a constant threat to Israel’s well-being (Judges 6:10).

By the end of the period of the judges, relations between Israel and the Amorites improved (1 Samuel 7:14). David continued to honor Joshua’s treaty with the Amorite remnant of Gibeon (2 Samuel 21:2–6). Solomon conscripted his labor forces from the Amorites and other peoples still surviving from the Israelite conquest (1 Kings 9:20–22).

The Old Testament compares Israel's victory over the Amorites to the Exodus. It calls for celebrating this great event (Psalms 135:9–12; 136:13–26). If the people forgot, the Lord reminded them through his prophets (Amos 2:9–10). Long after defeating Sihon and Og, people still remembered the area east of the Jordan as the land of “Sihon king of the Amorites” (1 Kings 4:19).

When the kings of Israel and Judah began to fail God, the memory of the Amorites provided a standard of comparison for evil. God spoke to Jerusalem, the Jews' representative, through the prophet Ezekiel. Their fascination with idolatry had upset Him. He said, "Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite" (Ezekiel 16:45). In the biblical view, the Amorites stood for everything that is evil to God.