The Amorites were among the early inhabitants of the land of Palestine. In the days of Joshua they occupied the mountainous country west of the Dead Sea and also that portion of Transjordan Israel had taken from Sihon and Og. Their kinsmen, the Canaanites, lived chiefly in what is called Phoenicia and in the mountainous areas to the north and south of Jerusalem. According to 1 Chron. 1:13-15, the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, and Hivites were all descendants of Canaan (see Vol. I, p. 270). The Hittite empire, centered in Asia Minor, controlled certain city-states as far south as the land of Palestine. A great racial migration had taken place in the first half of the second millennium B.C.in the eastern Mediterranean area, during the course of which the Hyksos had spilled over into Palestine, and even as far south as Egypt. It is thought that this movement was responsible for bringing south into Palestine a large number of Hittites, Hurrians (Horites, sometimes classed with the Hivites), and possibly the Jebusites of Jerusalem, the Perizzites, and other non-Semitic tribes. These were scattered in various areas of Palestine, which are not always clearly defined. These six or seven nations are frequently referred to in the early books of the OT, often in connection with a promise to drive them out.

The signal manifestation of divine power they were about to witness would distinguish their God as the true and “living God.”