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•AMORITES highlanders, or hillmen, the name given to the descendants of one of the sons of Canaan (Genesis 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” (Deuteronomy 1:7, 19, 20). They seem to have originally occupied the land stretching from the heights west of the Dead Sea (Genesis 14:7) to Hebron (13. Comp. 13:8; Deuteronomy 3:8; 4:46-48), embracing “all Gilead and all Bashan” (Deuteronomy 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 (Deuteronomy 31:4; Joshua 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 (Joshua 11:8). It is mentioned as a surprising circumstance that in the days of Samuel there was peace between them and the Israelites (1 Samuel 7:14). The discrepancy supposed to exist between Deuteronomy 1:44 and Numbers 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 Genesis 34:2 are the “Amorites” of 48:22. Comp. Joshua 10:6; 11:19 with 2 Samuel 21:2; also Numbers 14:45 with Deuteronomy 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” (Deuteronomy 3:11). Both Sihon and Og were independent kings. Only one word of the Amorite language survives, “Shenir,” the name they gave to Mount Hermon (Deuteronomy 3:9).
•AMOS borne; a burden, one of the twelve minor prophets. He was a native of Tekota, the modern Tekua, a town about 12 miles south-east of Bethlehem. He was a man of humble birth, neither a “prophet nor a prophet’s son,” but “an herdman and a dresser of sycomore trees,” R.V. He prophesied in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and was
contemporary with Isaiah and Hosea (Amos 1:1; 7:14, 15; Zechariah 14:5), who survived him a few years. Under Jeroboam II. the kingdom of Israel rose to the zenith of its prosperity; but that was followed by the prevalence of luxury and vice and idolatry. At this period Amos was called from his obscurity to remind the people of the law of God’s retributive justice, and to call them to repentance.
The Book of Amos consists of three parts:
(1.) The nations around are summoned to judgment because of their sins (1:1-2:3). He quotes Joel 3:16.
(2.) The spiritual condition of Judah, and especially of Israel, is described (2:4-6:14).
(3.) In 7:1-9:10 are recorded five prophetic visions. (a) The first two (7:1-6) refer to judgments against the guilty people. (b) The next two (7:7-9; 8:1-3) point out the ripeness of the people for the threatened judgements. 7:10-17 consists of a conversation between the prophet and the priest of Bethel. (c) The fifth describes the overthrow and ruin of Israel (9:1-10); to which is added the promise of the restoration of the kingdom and its final glory in the Messiah’s kingdom.
The style is peculiar in the number of the allusions made to natural objects and to agricultural occupations. Other allusions show also that Amos was a student of the law as well as a “child of nature.” These phrases are peculiar to him: “Cleanness of teeth” [i.e., want of bread] (4:6); “The excellency of Jacob” (6:8; 8:7); “The high places of Isaac” (7:9); “The house of Isaac” (7:16); “He that createth the wind” (4:13). Quoted, Acts 7:42.