Amorites
    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 of the
    Amorite language survives, "Shenir," the name they gave to Mount
    Hermon (Deut. 3:9).