Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

Hi,

the Amorites are identified with the Martu of Akkadian literature. Here is
an example of the way they were viewed by their Sumerian neighbours:

*The MAR.TU who know no grain.... The MAR.TU who know no house nor town, the
boors of the mountains.... The MAR.TU who digs up truffles... who does not
bend his knees (to cultivate the land), who eats raw meat, who has no house
during his lifetime, who is not buried after death.*
*
*
The Amorites were primarily a nomadic people. They did not respect
territorial boundaries and wandered wherever they pleased so their cattle
could eat whatever the land offered. Civilised neighbours who worked and
cultivated the land obviously did not take a liking to Amorite tribes
wandering in and eating the fruits of their labours.

The assumption that the wandering Amorites never reached as far as Oases to
the South of Dead Sea is not only baseless but almost certainly incorrect.

James Christian