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Amorites

People from Amor(?)

The Amorites were a Canaanite people group who lived in the hill country and were among the enemies the Israelites faced when entering the Promised Land.

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Also known as Amorite

The Amorites were one of the Canaanite peoples who inhabited the land promised to the Israelites. They are first mentioned in the Table of Nations as descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham. The Amorites lived in the hill country and were known for their military prowess.

During the time of Abraham, the Amorites were one of the groups living in Canaan. God promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land when the iniquity of the Amorites reached its full measure.

When the Israelites left Egypt and approached the Promised Land, the Amorites were among the peoples they were told to dispossess. The Amorite kings Sihon and Og, who ruled over the territories east of the Jordan River, were defeated by the Israelites under Moses' leadership.

After the conquest of Canaan under Joshua, the Amorites were among the groups that the Israelites failed to completely drive out. They remained a significant presence in the land, often oppressing the Israelites during the time of the judges.

The Amorites are mentioned throughout the historical books of the Old Testament as one of the primary enemies of Israel. Their presence in the land was a result of the Israelites' disobedience to God's command to completely remove them.

The prophets Ezekiel and Amos also refer to the Amorites, using them as an example of the wickedness that Israel had adopted. The complete destruction of the Amorites was a sign of God's judgment against their sinful practices.

Family

Father
Canaan

Bible dictionary

Amorites Easton Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

Highlanders, or hillmen, the name given to the descendants of one of the sons of Canaan (Gen. 14:7), called Amurra or Amurri in the Assyrian and Egyptian inscriptions. On the early Babylonian monuments all Syria, including Palestine, is known as “the land of the Amorites.” The southern slopes of the mountains of Judea are called the “mount of the Amorites” (Deut. 1:7, 19, 20). They seem to have originally occupied the land stretching from the heights west of the Dead Sea (Gen. 14:7) to Hebron (13. Comp. 13:8; Deut. 3:8; 4:46-48), embracing “all Gilead and all Bashan” (Deut. 3:10), with the Jordan valley on the east of the river (4:49), the land of the “two kings of the Amorites,” Sihon and Og (Deut. 31:4; Josh. 2:10; 9:10). The five kings of the Amorites were defeated with great slaughter by Joshua (10:10). They were again defeated at the waters of Merom by Joshua, who smote them till there were none remaining (Josh. 11:8). It is mentioned as a surprising circumstance that in the days of Samuel there was peace between them and the Israelites (1 Sam. 7:14). The discrepancy supposed to exist between Deut. 1:44 and Num. 14:45 is explained by the circumstance that the terms “Amorites” and “Amalekites” are used synonymously for the “Canaanites.” In the same way we explain the fact that the “Hivites” of Gen. 34:2 are the “Amorites” of 48:22. Comp. Josh. 10:6; 11:19 with 2 Sam. 21:2; also Num. 14:45 with Deut. 1:44. The Amorites were warlike mountaineers. They are represented on the Egyptian monuments with fair skins, light hair, blue eyes, aquiline noses, and pointed beards. They are supposed to have been men of great stature; their king, Og, is described by Moses as the last “of the remnant of the giants” (Deut. 3:11). Both Sihon and Og were independent kings. Only one word…

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Amorites Hastings Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

AMORITES, correctly EM'ORITES (mountaneers), a Syrian tribe descended from Canaan, and among the most formidable of the tribes with whom the Israelites contended. Gen 10:16. They were of gigantic stature and great courage. Am 2:9. They first inhabited the hill-country south of Jerusalem, the barren and rocky land in which David took refuge; but from there they went into better possessions, and at the time of the Conquest they inhabited one of the most fertile districts of the country, being bounded on three sides by the rivers Arnon, Jabbok, and Jordan. See Ammonites. The Israelites asked permission of their king to travel through their territory, promising to injure nothing, not even to draw water from their wells; but it was refused. The Amorites collected and attempted to oppose their progress, but were defeated, and their territory taken and divided between the tribes of Reuben and Gad. Josh 13:15, 2 Chr 11:21, Jud 6:24, Gen 1:27. Nothing more is heard of them in the Bible, except occasionally as moving in small bands.

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Amorites Schaff Schaff’s Dictionary of the Bible

AMORITES, correctly EM'ORITES (mountaneers), a Syrian tribe descended from Canaan, and among the most formidable of the tribes with whom the Israelites contended. Gen 10:16. They were of gigantic stature and great courage. Am 2:9. They first inhabited the hill-country south of Jerusalem, the barren and rocky land in which David took refuge; but from there they went into better possessions, and at the time of the Conquest they inhabited one of the most fertile districts of the country, being bounded on three sides by the rivers Arnon, Jabbok, and Jordan. See Ammonites. The Israelites asked permission of their king to travel through their territory, promising to injure nothing, not even to draw water from their wells; but it was refused. The Amorites collected and attempted to oppose their progress, but were defeated, and their territory taken and divided between the tribes of Reuben and Gad. Josh 13:15, 2 Chr 11:21, Jud 6:24, Gen 1:27. Nothing more is heard of them in the Bible, except occasionally as moving in small bands.

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Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Amorites appears

86 verses in 17 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H0567

Genesis6
Exodus6
Numbers12
Deuteronomy15
Joshua20
Judges11
1 Samuel1
2 Samuel1
1 Kings3
2 Kings1
1 Chronicles1
2 Chronicles1
Ezra1
Nehemiah1
Psalms2
Ezekiel2
Amos2

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.