The Amorites
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(mountain-dwellers, or highlanders) (Gen. 10:16; Num. 13:30 [as given]) — a tribe descended from Canaan, the most fearsome of all the peoples with whom the Israelites ever had dealings. They were of gigantic stature and very warlike (Amos 2:9); they inhabited one of the most fertile lands on earth, washed on three sides by the rivers Arnon, Jabbok, and Jordan. The Israelites asked permission to pass through their land, promising to do no harm and not even to draw water from their wells, but this request was refused.
The Amorites gathered and tried to stop their advance, but were utterly defeated; their land was taken and divided between the tribes of Reuben and Gad. A branch of this same people originally dwelt between the western cliffs and the bitumen pits of the shores of the Dead Sea (Gen. 14:7). The word “Amorite” is sometimes used in a coarser sense, almost synonymous with the designation “Canaanite.”