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529 Amora

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

529

the Amorites (Dput. i. 7, 19) on one side of the Canaan itcsfi'Airf. verses 27, 44). nortli of Kadeshbaruea. The Amorites in Ha/.ezon-tamar (Gen. .viv. 7) and Mamre (ver. V.i) belong to the same region. (h) More to the nortli Joslnia, x. 5. mentions five kings of the Amorites; namely, in Jerusalem, Hebron, Jammth, Lachish, and Eglon. as "all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the hill-country " compare ver. 12. According to II Sam. xxi. 2, Uibeon also was Amoritish (Josluia, xi. 19: Ilivitish), although it is more probable that the name Amorite has there the vague meaning discussed above, without precise

"from the riverof Arnon unto Mount Hermon." So the land of the Amorites. which is in Gilead (Judges, X. 8), seems to have embraced all the territory afterward owned by Israel, east of the Jordan. Deut. iii. 9 informs us that the name of Mount llermonin the language of the Amorites was Shenir.

W.

xxiv. 8),

We

find

the"Amoiites

westward " (Joshua, v. 1, distinguished from the "Canaanites which

were by the sea"

(ibid. v. 1);

Joshua,

xi. 3,

appor-

tions the hill-country to the Amorites, together with three other nations, distinguishing them from "the Canajjniteson the east and on the west." According

y.

'SI.

In Rabbinical and Apocryphal Litera-



ethnologiciil signification. which were beyond .Ionian,

Amorites

ture

In Tosef., Shab.



and generally Canaanites are usually

(vii. [viii.] 23),

in postliil)lical litiTature, the

spoken of as the Amorites (compare A.ssumjitio Mosis, xi. 16 B. M. 25i) and they were characterized by R. Jose, the chronicler, as the most intractable of all nations. To the apocryphal writers of the first and second pre-Christian century they are the main representatives of heathen superstition, loathed as idola;

ters, in



whose ordinances

(Lev. xviii.

3).

A

Israelites

may

not walk

special section of the

(Tosef., Shab. vi.-vii. [vii. -viii. ]



Talmud

Bab. 8hab. 671

et

Amoritks. (From

Uie pyloo of tb« Raroeaeiim.)

to Judges, i. 34 [A. V. 35], however, at a somewhat later period, the Amorites dwelling "in Mount Ileres, in Aijalon, and in Shiwlbim." whose l)order began "from the ascent of Akrabt)im." did not allow the Danites " to come down to the valley " and " forced them into the hill country." although the Amorites afterward became subject to Israel. It is (juestionablo if a remnant of the Amoritish t<>rritory properly speaking is meant; more probaldy the name Amorite has again the general meaning. One is even tempted to inderstand it as used of the Philistines (as 1 Sam. vii. 14; see above). (c) Amorites dwell east of the Jonian (Num. xxi. 13): the Arnon is the frontier between Moab and the Amorites. This land of the Amorites reaching "from Anion to Jabbok, even unto the children of

Amnion

had been taken awav from Moab

" (itn'il. 24),

by Sihon

who built Heshbon to be 27) directly before the immiAmorites dwelling in Ja/.er are

(ihid. 24, 2(1, 29),

Ins residence (ibid.

2(1,

gration of Israel. specially nieiitione<i "

(i'u'd.

32). The.se Amorites " are also referred to

which dwelt beyond Jordan

19; Ps. cxxxv. 11. Og, king of Baslian Aslitarotli, is also called an Amorite in Deut. iii. iv. 47, where we learn that Og's territory extended

(Deut. i. 1, 4, iii. 2; cxxxvi. 19; Josh. ii. in

6,

I.-34

I

Kings,

iv.

10, ix. Id).

/le/j.)

is

devoted to the various superstitions called

"The Waysof theAmorites." According to the Book of Jubilees (xxix.[9] 11), " the former terrible giants, the Hepliaim, gave way to the Amorites, an evil and sinful people whose wickedness surpasses that of any other, and whose life will Ix' cut short on earth." In the Syriae Apocalypse of Barucli (Ix.) they are symbolized by "black water" on account of "their black art, their witchcraft and impure Masters of mysteries, by which they contaminated Witchcraft. Israel in the lime of the Judges. " This refers to the strange story of Kenaz, preserved in the "Chronicle of Jerahmeel" (Colin in "Jew. Quart. Hev." 1898, pp. 294 et »,-</.. and translation of Oa.ster. p. lOfi), which relates how the tribes of Israel learned all their wickedness from the Amorites. the masters of witchcraft, whose books they kepi hiihlenundrr Mount Abariin, and whose wonderworking idols seven holy nymphs they had conEach of thesi' idols cealed beneath Mount Shechem. was a<iorned with precious stones, which shone at night like the light of day, and by their power sight was restored to the blind. Kenaz. the .son of Caleb and father of Othnii'l. when hearing of this, forthwith destroyed the idolatrous Israelites by lire, but tried in vain to destroy either the magic-books or the

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