AMORITES, the name given by the Israelites to the earlier
inhabitants of Palestine. They are regarded as a powerful
people, giants in stature "like the height of the cedars,"
who had occupied the land east and west of the Jordan. The
Biblical usage appears to show that the terms "Canaanites"
and "Amorites" were used synonymously, the former being
characteristic of Judaean, the latter of Ephraimite and
Deuteronomic writers. A distinction is sometimes maintained,
however, when the Amorites are spoken of as the people of
the past, whereas the Canaanites are referred to as still
surviving. The old name is an ethnic term, evidently to be
connected with the terms Amurru and Amar, used by Assyria
and
Egypt respectively. In the spelling Mar-tu, the name
is as old as the first Babylonian dynasty, but from the
15th century B.C. and downwards its syllabic equivalent
Amurru is applied primarily to the land extending northwards
of Palestine as far as Kadesh on the Orontes. The term
"Canaan," on the other hand, is confined more especially
to the southern district (from Gebal to the south of
Palestine). But it is possible that the terms at an early date
were interchangeable, Canaan being geographical and Amorite
ethnical. The wider extension of the use of Amurru by the
Babylonians and Assyrians is complicated by the fact that
it was even applied to a district in the neighbourhood of
Babylonia. If the people of the first Babylonian dynasty
(about 21st century B.C.) called themselves "Amorites,"
as Ranke seems to have shown, it is possible that some
feeling of common origin was recognized at that early date.
See Ranke, Bab. Exped. Pennsylvania, series D, iii. 33
sqq.; and for general information, W. M. Muller, Asien u.
Europa, 217 sqq.; Pinches, Old Testament, Index (s.v..)
The people of Amar are represented on the Egyptian monuments
with yellow skin, blue eyes, red eyebrows and beard, whence
it has been conjectured that they were akin to the Libyans
(Sayce, Expositor, July 1888). Senir, the "Amorite',
name of Hermon (Deut. iii. 9). appears to be identical
with Saniru in the Lebanon, mentioned by Shalmaneser Il.
In the Old Testament the chief references may be classified
as follows:--primitive inhabitants generally, Is. xvii. 9
(on text see comm.), Ezek. xvi. 3; a people W. of Jordan,
Josh. x. 5; Judg. i. 34-36; Deut. i. 7, 44; Gen. xiv. 7,
xlviii. 22: E. of Jordan, Num. xxi. 13, 21 sqq.; Josh. ii.
10, xxiv. 8; Judg. x. 8. See further CANAAN, PALESTINE.
Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed