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AMORITES

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 876 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AMORITES , the name given by the Israelites to the earlier inhabitants of See also:

Palestine. They are regarded as a powerful See also:people, giants in stature " like the height of the cedars," who had occupied the See also:land See also:east and See also:west of the See also: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 See also:term, evidently to be connected with the terms Amurru and Amar, used by See also:Assyria and See also:Egypt respectively. In the spelling See also:Mar-tu, the name is as old as the first Babylonian See also:dynasty, but from the 15th See also:century B.C. and downwards its syllabic See also:equivalent Amurru is applied primarily to the land extending northwards of Palestine as far as Kadesh on the See also:Orontes. The term " See also:Canaan," on the other See also:hand, is confined more especially to the See also:southern See also:district (from Gebal to the See also:south of Palestine). But it is possible that the terms at an See also:early date were inter-changeable, Canaan being See also:geographical and Amorite ethnical. The wider See also: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 them-selves " Amorites," as See also:Ranke seems to have shown, it is possible that some feeling of See also:common origin was recognized at that early date. See Ranke, Bab. Exiled.

See also:

Pennsylvania, See also:series D, iii. 33 sqq. ; and for See also:general See also:information, W. M. See also:Muller, Asien u. See also:Europa, 217 sqq. ; Pinches, Old Testament, See also:Index (s.v.). The people of Amar are represented on the See also:Egyptian monuments with yellow skin, See also:blue eyes, red eyebrows and See also:beard, whence it has been conjectured that they were akin to the Libyans (See also:Sayre, Expositor, See also:July 1888). Senir, the " Amorite " name of See also:Hermon (Deut. iii. 9), appears to be identical with Saniru in the See also:Lebanon, mentioned by See also:Shalmaneser I1. In the Old Testament the See also:chief references may be classified as follows:—primitive inhabit-ants generally, Is. xvii. 9 (on See also:text see See also: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. io, See also:

xxiv. 8 ; Judg. x. 8. See further CANAAN, PALESTINE.

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