Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Each of Genesis 14: 13 and Genesis 15: 16 refers to “the Amorite”, using the same five Hebrew letters:  H-)MRY.  But the first named Amorite, namely Mamre the Amorite, is in covenant relationship with Abram, and is Abram’s invaluable ally.  That is not the Amorite who commits a terrible iniquity against the early Hebrews.  According to Biblical testimony, who was Mamre the Amorite’s successor?  Was he another Amorite, and was he “iniquitous” in his dealings with the early Hebrews?  Was he the firstborn son of Mamre the Amorite, whom Mamre the Amorite unduly favored, just as (i) Abraham initially unduly favored firstborn son Ishmael [Genesis 17: 16, 18], Isaac initially unduly favored firstborn son Esau [Genesis 25: 28], and Jacob initially unduly favored the firstborn son of his favorite wife Rachel, namely Joseph [Genesis 37: 3]?  Was Mamre’s successor an Amorite princeling ruler who was iniquitous, from the standpoint of the early Hebrews?   W-h-o  was the iniquitous Amorite referred to at Genesis 15: 16, and  w-h-a-t  was the precise nature of that Amorite’s iniquity regarding the early Hebrews?

 

 

Here’s what scholar Gerhard von Rad says at p. 187 of “Genesis” (1972):  “The ‘iniquity of the Amorites’ is here to be understood as their sexual corruption….”

 

 

The mainstream scholarly view of Genesis 15: 16 appears to be that of Gordon J. Wenham, who in “Genesis 1-15” (1987) at p. 332 says:  “Here the Amorites stand for all the inhabitants of Canaan.”

 

 

But if the Biblical phrase “the Amorite”/H-)MRY meant “all the inhabitants of Canaan”, then everyone in Canaan except the Hebrews has been divinely judged by YHWH to be iniquitous.  Is that a sensible interpretation of this text?  Abram has just been in an invaluable covenant relationship with Mamre the Amorite.  That Amorite, who was a west Semitic-speaking inhabitant of Canaan, wasn’t iniquitous.  As to Abimelek of GRR, who is another west Semitic-speaking inhabitant of Canaan, Genesis 20: 4 does not say that he’s iniquitous, but rather says that Abimelek is “a righteous nation”.  Is it credible to think that the Patriarchal narratives are characterizing  a-l-l  the inhabitants of Canaan as being iniquitous?  To me, that blatantly contradicts what the text of the last 40 chapters of Genesis explicitly says, which features Abram being in a valuable covenant relationship with each of Mamre the Amorite and Abimelek, two non-Hebrew west Semitic-speaking inhabitants of Canaan who are not iniquitous. 

 

 

Moreover, since there were only a tiny number of Amorites in Canaan, with the overwhelming majority of the population of Canaan being Canaanites and Hurrians [based on the Biblical names in the last 40 chapters of Genesis, which accurately reflect a certain time period in Late Bronze Age Canaan], why do scholars ask us to believe that a reference to one tiny minority group in Canaan, the Amorites, means “all the inhabitants in Canaan”?   N-o-t-h-i-n-g  in the Patriarchal narratives supports that scholarly gambit.

 

 

It seems to me that Biblical scholars have no idea whatsoever what “the iniquity of the Amorite” is.  In particular, isn’t it clear that Biblical scholars are clueless as to who “the Amorite” at Genesis 15: 16 is?  The Patriarchal narratives don’t hate “all the inhabitants of Canaan”!!!  There’s nothing in the text of the last 40 chapters of Genesis to support that hateful scholarly view, which seeks to brand “all the inhabitants of Canaan” as allegedly being divinely deemed by YHWH to be “iniquitous”.  No way!  Not.  On this thread, let’s come to our senses and follow the Biblical clues in order to figure out who the iniquitous Amorite was, and what that iniquitous Amorite did to the early Hebrews that was so unforgivably iniquitous.  In my considered opinion, Genesis 15: 16 is talking about one historical, iniquitous Amorite princeling ruler who terribly adversely affected the first Hebrews, and is not raining down a horrible divine judgment on “all the inhabitants of Canaan”.

 

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois