| Am’orite, the Am’orites
(dwellers on the summits, mountaineers), one of the chief nations who
possessed the land of Canaan before its conquest by the Israelites.
As dwelling on the elevated portions of the country, they are contrasted
with the Canaanites, who were the dwellers in the lowlands; and the
two thus formed the main broad divisions of the Holy Land, Num.
13:29; and see Gen. 14:7;
Deut. 1:7, 20, "mountain
of the Amorites;" 44;
Josh. 5:1; 10: 6; 11:
3. They first occupied the barren heights west of the Dead Sea,
at the place called afterwards Engedi. From this point they stretched
west to Hebron. At tile date of the invasion of the country, Sihon,
their then king, had taken the rich pasture land south of the Jabbok.
This rich tract, bounded by the Jabbok on the north, the Arnon on the
south, the Jordan on the west and "the wilderness" on the
east, Judges 11: 21, 22,
was, perhaps, in the most special sense the "land of the Amorites,"
Num. 21: 31; Josh.
12: 2, 3; 13: 10; Judges
11: 21, 22; but their possessions are distinctly stated to have
extended to the very foot of Hermon, Deut.
3:8; 4:48, embracing "Gilead and all Bashan," 3:
10, with the Jordan valley on the east of thc river. 4:49.
After the conquest of Canaan nothing of importance is heard of the Amorites
in the Bible. |