GOD SINGLED OUT the Amorites for their wickedness, telling Abraham (then still Abram) that “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

What did God mean by that? This week, we revisit the people who dominated the world of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Amorites dominated the ancient Near East—the lands of the Bible from Persia to the Mediterranean Sea—from 2000 to 1500 BC. But their spiritual influence has lasted much longer.

Amorites founded the kingdom of Babylon, which has been a symbol of spiritual wickedness since the time of Moses, and their descendants, the Phoenicians, spread the practice of child sacrifice all around the Mediterranean from North Africa to Spain.