Ancient Canaan Dwellers – 1

Amorites the Oldest Canaanites

The Amorites (Sumerian MAR.TU, Akkadian Tidnum or Amurr?m, Egyptian Amar, Hebrew ’em?rî) refers to a Semitic people who occupied the country west of the Euphrates from the second half of the third millennium BCE. The term Amurru refers to them, as well as to their principal deity.

Origin. In the earliest Sumerian sources, beginning about 2400 BCE, the land of the Amorites (”the Mar.tu land”) is associated with the West, including Syria and Canaan, although their ultimate origin may have been Arabia. The ethnic terms Amurru and Amar were used for them in Assyria and Egypt respectively. Amorites seem to have worshipped the moon-god Sin, and Amurru.

From the 21st century BCE, a large-scale migration of Amorite tribes infiltrated Mesopotamia, precipitating the downfall of the Neo-Sumerian Third Dynasty of Ur, and acquiring a series of powerful kingdoms, culminating in the triumph under Hammurabi of one of them, that of Babylon.

Known Amorites (mostly those of Mari) wrote in a dialect of Akkadian found on tablets dating from 1800–1750 BCE showing many northwest Semitic forms and constructions. The Amorite language was presumably a northwest Semitic dialect. The main sources for our extremely limited knowledge about the language are proper names, not Akkadian in style, that are preserved in such texts. Many of these names are similar to later Biblical Hebrew names.

Biblical Amorites. The term Amorites is used in the Bible to refer to certain highland mountaineers who inhabited the land of Canaan, described in Genesis 10:16 as descendants of Canaan, son of Ham

They are described as a powerful people of great stature “like the height of the cedars,” who had occupied the land east and west of the Jordan; their king, Og, being described as the last “of the remnant of the giants” (Deuteronomy 3:11). The terms Amorite and Canaanite seem to be used more or less interchangeably, Canaan being more general, and Amorite a specific component among the Canaanites who inhabited the land.

The Biblical Amorites seem to have originally occupied the region stretching from the heights west of the Dead Sea (Genesis 14:7) to Hebron (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; Josh. 2:10; 9:10). Both Sihon and Og were independent kings.

These Amorites seem to have been linked to the Jerusalem region, and the Jebusites may have been a subgroup of them. The southern slopes of the mountains of Judea are called the “mount of the Amorites” (Deuteronomy 1:7, 19, 20). One possible etymology for “Mount Moriah” is “Mountain of the Amorites,” with loss of the initial syllable

Five kings of the Amorites were first defeated with great slaughter by Joshua (10:10). They were said to have been utterly destroyed at the waters of Merom by Joshua (Josh. 11:8). It is mentioned that in the days of Samuel, there was peace between them and the Israelites (1 Sam. 7:14).

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, 1:19, 1:20). They seem to have originally occupied the land stretching from the heights west of the Dead Sea (Genesis 14:7) to Hebron (Genesis 13. Compare Genesis 13:8; Deuteronomy 3:8; Deuteronomy 4:46), embracing “all Gilead and all Bashan” (Deuteronomy 3:10), with the Jordan valley on the east of the river (Deuteronomy 4:49), the land of the “two kings of the Amorites,” Sihon and Og (Deuteronomy 31:4; Joshua 2:10; Jos 9:10). The five kings of the Amorites were defeated with great slaughter by Joshua (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 (Sa1 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 Genenesis 34:2 are the “Amorites” of Genesis 48:22. Compare Joshua 10:6; Joshua 11:19 with Samuel 2 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).

19th CE Century “Amoraites”. The view that Amorites were fierce nomads led to an idiosyncratic theory among some writers in the 19th. Century that they were a tribe of “Germanic” (!!!) warriors who at one point dominated the Israelites. This was because the evidence fitted then-current models of Indo-European migrations. This theory originated with Felix von Luschan, who later abandoned it. Luschan’s speculation was taken up by anti-Semites, notably Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who claimed that King David and Jesus were both of Amorite extraction. This argument was repeated by the Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg.

The Amonites

The Ammonites were regarded by Hebrews as close relatives of the Israelites and Edomites. The ancient kingdom of Ammon was located in northwestern Arabia east of Gilead [1]  and the Dead Sea. The borders of the Ammonite territory are not uniformly defined in the Old Testament. In Judges 11:13, the claim of the king of Ammon, who demands of the Israelites the restoration of the land “from Arnon even unto Jabbok and unto Jordan” is mentioned only as an unjust claim,, since the Israelite part of this tract had been conquered from the Amorite king Sihon, who had, in turn, displaced the Moabites; in Judges 11:22 it is stated that the Israelites had possession “from the wilderness even unto Jordan”, and that they laid claim to territory beyond this, so as to leave no room for Ammon. The Book of Numbers 21:24 describes the Hebrew conquest as having reached “even unto the children of Ammon, for the border of the children of Ammon was Jazer.” Joshua 13:25, defines the frontier of the tribe of Gad as being “Jazer … and half the land of the children of Ammon.” The latter statement can be reconciled with Num. 21:24 and Deuteronomy 2:19, 37 by assuming that the northern part of Sihon’s Amorite kingdom had formerly been Ammonite. This explains, in part, the claim mentioned above (Judges, 11:13). According to Deuteronomy 2:37, the region along the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country formed the border of Israel. On the authority of Deuteronomy 2:20, their territory had formerly been in the possession of a mysterious nation, the Zamzummim (also called Zuzim), and the war of Chedorlaomer (Genesis 14:5) with this nation may be connected with the history of Ammon. When the Israelites invaded Canaan, they passed by the frontier of the Ammonites.

The chief city of the country was Rabbah or Rabbath Ammon (the modern city of Amman is now located at its site [2] , i.e. the metropolis of the Ammonites, called Rabbathammana by the later Greeks. Ptolemy Philadelphus changed its name to Philadelphia, and made it a large and strong city with an acropolis, situated on both sides of a branch of the Jabbok, today known as Nahr `Amman, the river of Ammon — whence the designation “city of waters” The city of Amman, Jordan is located on roughly the same site.

In the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the Ammonites seem to have been fickle in their political attitude. They assisted the Babylonian army against the Jews; encroached upon the territory of the Gad; and occupied Heshbon and Jazer. At the time of the rebuilding of Jerusalem by Ezra and Nehemiah, they were hostile to the Jews, and Tobiah, an Ammonite (possibly the governor of Ammon), incited them to hinder the work (Nehmiah. 3:35). But inter-marriages between Jews and Ammonites were frequent. Little mention is made of the Ammonites through the Persian and early Hellenistic periods. Their name appears, however, during the time of the Maccabees. The Ammonites, with some of the neighboring tribes, did their utmost to resist and check the revival of the Jewish power under Judas Maccabeus.

The last notice of the Ammonites themselves is in Justin Martyr (100–165 CE), Dialogue with Trypho (§ 119), where it is affirmed that they were still a numerous people.

The Edomites

The Edomite people were a Semitic-speaking tribal group inhabiting the Negev Desert and the Arabah valley of what is now southern Dead sea and adjacent Jordan. The region has much reddish sandstone, which may have given rise to the name “Edom“. The nation of Edom is known to have existed back to the 8th. or 9th. century BCE, and the Bible dates it back several centuries further. Recent archeological evidence may indicate an Edomite nation as long ago as the 11th. century BCE, but the topic is controversial. The nation ceased to exist with the Jewish-Roman Wars.

The Edomites may have been connected with the Shasu and Shutu, nomadic raiders mentioned in Egyptian sources. Indeed, a letter from an Egyptian scribe at a border fortress in the Wadi Tumilat during the reign of Merneptah reports movement of nomadic “shasu-tribes of Edom” to watering holes in Egyptian territory [3]

For over a century, archeologists specializing in the Middle East maintained that there was no evidence of an organized state society in Edom earlier than the 800s or 700s BCE, and first believed no Edom existed at all. Biblical minimalists touted this fact as one piece of evidence of the Bible’s ultimate unreliability as a historical source [4] .

Grave s [5] and Patai [6]  (1964) propose that the Davidic dynasty might have been of Edomite origin by pointing to similarities in the Edomite names of the alufim and the leaders of the tribe of Judah. They suggest that a small Edomite tribe may have resided in the Hebron area even before the Israelite conquest, and during the period described in the Book of Joshua, joined the Israelites in re-conquering the Judean hills. Graves and Patai suggest that the Book of Genesis (Bereshit) may contain Edomite creation myths (Adam = Edom). If so, this would explain certain puzzling issues in the biblical text (e.g., Esau, “admoni,” being first born and then losing his birthright in a belated “correction”). Naturally, most of the scholars considers this theory as “pure fantasy”.

Recently, however, excavations such as the 2004-2004 UCSD (University of California, San Diego) dig at Khirbat an-Nahas, part of the Jabal Hamrat Fidan (JHF) Archaeological Project, in Jordan have shed new light on the history of Edom, unearthing artifacts and evidence of settled state society as early as the tenth century BCE [7] , although whether and to what extent these sites reflect Edomite statehood is debated. Thomas E. Levy, among other scholars, concluded from a survey of the an-Nahas site that Edom was a sophisticated, urbanized society as early as the eleventh century BCE, (the date of the first Israelite monarchy, according to the Bible) which even had its own copper works.[8]  Radiocarbon tests from the site have confirmed that the industrial areas of the site date to the eleventh and tenth centuries BCE. [9]

NOTES

[1]  Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Ammon.” Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. 9th ed. MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 1985.
[2]  Guralnik, David B., Editor in Chief. “Amman.” Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language. Second College Edition. New York, NY: Prentice Hall Press, 1986
[3]  Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, Princeton Univ. Press, 1992. p.228, 318.
[4]  Idem pg. 305.
[5]  Robert Graves (1895 – 1985) was an English poet, scholar, translator, and novelist. Author of  I Claudius, and Graves, R. & Patai, R. Hebrew Myths, Doubleday, 1964
[6]  Raphael Patai (1910 – 1996) born Ervin György Patai, was a Hungarian-Jewish ethnographer and anthropologist.
[7]  Jagoda, Barry (2005). Controversial Dates Of Biblical Edom Reassessed In Results From New Archeological Research
[8]  Levy, Thomas E. and Mohammed Najjar. “Edom and Copper.” BAR. July/August, 2006; Thomas E. Levy/Mohammad Najjar/Thomas Higham. (2007) ‘Iron Age Complex Societies, Radiocarbon Dates and Edom: Working with the Data and Debates’. Antiguo Oriente 5.
[9]  Levy (2006; 2007), but see E. van der Steen/P. Bienkowski. (2006) ‘How Old is the Kingdom of Edom? A Review of New Evidence and Recent Discussion’. Antiguo Oriente 4.