22, Josh. xxiv. 15, Judg. i. 34, Am. ii. 9, 10, &c.,
where the name of Amorite is synonymous with "Canaanite," except that
"Amorite" is never used for the population on the coast. Next, as to the
extra-Biblical evidence. In the Egyptian inscriptions and in the Amarna
tablets Amar and Amurru have a more limited meaning, being applied to
the mountain-region east of Phoenicia, extending to the Orontes. Later
on, Amurru became the Assyrian term for the interior of south as well as
north Palestine, and at a still more recent period the term "the land of
Hatti" (conventionally = Hittites) displaced "Amurru" so far as north
Palestine is concerned (see HITTITES).

Thus the Phoenicians and the Amorites belong to the first stage of the
second great Arabian migration. In the interval preceding the second
stage Syria with Palestine became an Egyptian dependency, though the
links with the sovereign power were not so strong as to prevent frequent
local rebellions. Under Thothmes III. and Amen-hotep II. the pressure of
a strong hand kept the Syrians and Canaanites sufficiently loyal to the
Pharaohs. The reign of Amen-hotep III., however, was not quite so
tranquil for the Asiatic province. Turbulent chiefs began to seek their
opportunities, though as a rule they did not find them because they
could not obtain the help of a neighbouring king.[10] The boldest of the
disaffected was Aziru, son of Abdashirta, a prince of Amurru, who even
before the death, of Amen-hotep III. endeavoured to extend his power
into the plain of Damascus. Akizzi, governor of Katna (near Horns or
Hamath), reported this to the Pharaoh who seems to have frustrated the
attempt. In the next reign, however, both father and son caused infinite
trouble to loyal servants of Egypt like Rib-Addi, governor of Gubla
(Gebal).

It was, first, the advance of the Hatti (Hittites) into Syria, which
began in the time of Amen-hotep III., but became far more threatening in
that of his successor, and next, the resumption of the second Arabian
migration, which most seriously undermined the Egyptian power in Asia.
Of the former we cannot speak here (see HITTITES), except so far as to
remark the Abd-Ashirta and his son Aziru, though at first afraid of the
Hatti, was afterwards clever enough to make a treaty with their king,
and, with other external powers, to attack the districts which remained
loyal to Egypt. In vain did Rib-Addi send touching appeals for aid to
the distant Pharaoh, w