After the last Sumerian dynasty fell around 2000 BC, Mesopotamia drifted into conflict and chaos for almost a century.
Around 1900 BC, a group of Semites - Canaanites - called the Amorites - had managed to gain control of most of the Mesopotamian region. Like the Akkadians, the Amorites centralized the government over the individual city-states and based their capital in the city of Babylon, which was originally called Akkad and served as the center of the Amorite empire. For this reason, the Amorites are called the Old Babylonians and the period of their ascendancy over the region, which lasted from 1900-1600 BC, is called the Old Babylonian period.
The Amorites were an ancient tribe of Canaanites - but who were technically not of Canaanite ethnicity - who inhabited the region northeast of the Jordan River as far as Mount Hermon.
In the Bible, they were said to have lived in the mountains, the highlands, and the coastal plains of Canaan. It is not clear whether the Amorites were actually this diffused throughout Canaan or whether the term was occasionally used synonymously with "Canaanite."
The Amorite name means literally "the high one" and may refer to:
a. The mountainous terrain of the land they occupied (Num. 13:29; Deut.1:7,19-20); (Highlander or Mountaineer)
b. Their fearsome military prowess (Deut. 1:44)
c. Their great stature (Num. 13:33)
The terms "Amorite" and "Amorites" appear 26 and 60 times, respectively, in the American Standard Version of the Bible, totaling 86 occurrences.
The Amorites are first mentioned as early as Gen. 10:16 as having descended from Canaan, the first son of Ham - and as such were the first in recorded history to have a priest of the Most High God, Melchizedek. They, along with many other tribes, occupied the pre-conquest territory of Canaan. "Amorite" may have signified either a single ethnic clan or a loose confederacy of tribes. At times, the Amorite name seems to be synonymous with "Canaanite" and to represent all non-Israelites whom God commanded to be driven from the land (Josh. 10:5; 24:8,15; Jgs. 6:10).
There is evidence of them in Babylonia, where in the 19th cent. B.C. they established under their patronage the first dynasty at Babylon. The most powerful king of this dynasty, Hammurabi, put an end (18th cent. B.C.) to Amorite domination and issued a famous code of law, similar to Israelite codes. At the time of Joshua the Amorites were living both E and W of the Dead Sea. They were subdued and gradually absorbed by the Israelites under the leadership of Joshua.
It is quite likely that at one time the Amorites were the most powerful of all the pagan clans in Palestine. The Babylonians called Syria-Palestine "the land of the Amorites" - International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia - I:119.
The Amorites are last mentioned by the prophet Amos (2:10), apparently either having died out as a race or absorbed into Israel.
The Amorites lived in close contact with the Sumerians for a long time preceding their ascendency over the region, so it's possible that they gradually adopted Sumerian religion over several centuries. The Amorites did, however, import a new god into Sumerian religion, Marduk, which they elevated to the supreme position over the other gods. Like the Sumerians, the Amorites did not believe that life after death held any promise or threat, so like the Sumerians, Amorite religion ruthlessly focussed on this world.
In the end they believed in one omnipotent god.
