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Bible Dictionaries
Amorites The
Smith's Bible Dictionary
or Am'orites, The. (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 Shefelah, or lowlands; and the two thus formed the main broad divisions of the Holy Land, Numbers 13:29, and see Genesis 14:7; Deuteronomy 1:7; Deuteronomy 1:20, "Mountain of the Amorites"; Deuteronomy 1:44; Joshua 5:1; Joshua 10:6; Joshua 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 the 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," Numbers 21:31; Joshua 12:2-3; Joshua 13:10; Judges 11:21-22, but their possessions are distinctly stated to have extended to the very foot of Hermon, Deuteronomy 3:8; Deuteronomy 4:48, embracing "Gilead and all Bashan," Deuteronomy 3:10, with the Jordan valley on the east of the river. Deuteronomy 4:49. After the conquest of Canaan, nothing of importance is heard of the Amorites in the Bible.
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Smith, William, Dr. Entry for 'Amorites The'. Smith's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/sbd/a/amorites-the.html. 1901.
