Amalekite

From New World Encyclopedia

The Amalekites were a biblical people and implacable enemy of the Israelites. They were reportedly wiped out entirely as the result of Israelite victories against them in wars beginning shortly after the Exodus and coninuing on into the biblical conquest of Canaan and the earlier Israelite monarchy. They are unknown historically and archaelogical outside of the bible except for traditions which rely on biblical accounts.

The name Amalekite is sometimes interpreted as "dweller in the valley" but most specialists regard its origin to be unknown (M. Weippert, Semitische Nomaden des zweiten Jahrtausends. Biblica vol. 55, 1974, 265-280, 427-433). In the Bible, the Amalekites are said to have descended from a common ancestor named Amalek.

Biblical account

Origins

The first reference to the Amalekites is found in Genesis 14, which describes a military campaign of Kedorlaomer, king of Elam, and his allies which took place in Abraham's day before the birth of Isaac. Kedorlaomer conquered territories of the Amalekites, the Horites of Seir, Amorites, and others. Most of this territory seems to be in the area later designated as Edom—southeast of Israel in today's country of Jordan. On the other hand, Genesis 36:12 describes the birth of Amalek himself as Esau's grandson, born four long-lived generations after the events of Kedorlaomer's time. This account makes the Amalekites one of the Edomite tribes, descended from Esau's firstborn son, Eliphaz. Amalek's mother was named Timna, a Horite princess descended from Seir, for whom Edom's Mount Seir was named.

Israel's enemy

The Amalekites do not appear again until 400 years later, when Moses is leading the Israelites toward Canaan from Egypt. At Rephidim, they suddenly appear at attack the Israelites, who are apparently trespassing on their territory. Moses commissions the young Joshua to act as generall for the Israelites. Moses then climbs a nearby hill to watch the battle. A see-saw battle ensues, with the Amalekites prevailing whenever Moses lowers his arms and the Israelites prevailing whenever he raises them. Aaron and Hur help the aging Moses hold his arms high, and Joshua's forces eventually prove victorious.

God then pronounces the Amalekites doom, commanding Moses: "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." (Exodus 17:14) This event occurs near the beginning of the Exodus, before the incident of the Golden Calf, and we do not hear of the Amalekites again until nearly 40 years later. As the Israelites prepare to enter the promised land, Moses reminds them that the Amalekites are not to be forgiven:

Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! (Deuteronomy 25:17-19)

Later, when the Israelites have massed east of the Jordan in Moabite territory to prepare their conquest of Canaan. There, the famous prophet Balaam is hired by the Moabite king Balak to curse Israel and ensure the Israelites' defeat, but Balaam, inspired by God, only blesses Israel instead. In the process, he gives the following oracle concerning the Amalekites: "Amalek was first among the nations, but he will come to ruin at last." (Numbers 24:20)

Against the Judges

Strangely, the Amalekites are not mentioned in the Book of Joshua, as the Israelites march from victory to victory against the Canaanite tribes. In the Book of Judges, however, they make several appearances. Here they are described as an eastern tribe of the "hill country.' They join forces with Eglon, king of Moab, to reconquer Jericho.[1] The result is that: "The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years." (Judges 3:14)

Interestingly, the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:14) refers people in the territory of Ephraim, "whose roots were in Amalek," joining Deborah's military campaign against the Canaanite king Jabin.

The judge Gideon helped rid his territory of Amalekites, Midianites, "and other eastern peoples" who raided Israelite areas and spoiled their crops. (Judges 6)

Destroyed by Saul and David

It would be King Saul and ultimately King David, however, who finally fulfilled the doom pronounced earlier by Moses against the Amalekites. Saul "fought valiantly and defeated the Amalekites, delivering Israel from the hands of those who had plundered them." (1 Samuel 14:48) After this, God commands Saul to exterminate them entirely:

I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. (1 Samuel 15:2-3)

Saul warns the Kenites, who dwell near or among the Amalekites, to move away from them. He then "attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt. He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword" (1 Samuel 15:7-8) According the the prophet Samuel, however, God, was not satisfied with this. For sparing Agag and allowing his soliders to plunder some of the Amalekite cattle, God rejected Saul as king. Samuel himself finished the slaugher of the Amalekites by "hewing Agag in pieces before the Lord." (1 Samuel 15:33)

The destruction of the Amalekites, however, is not as complete as it seems. The future king David encounters them later in Saul's reign when David is serving the Philistine King Achish, having been declared an outlaw by Saul. As a Phisistine vassal, David conducts raids against the Amalekite towns, killing all the inhabitants but sharing the plunder with Achish. While David is on campaign with Achish, the Amalekites retaliate against him by raiding and burning his town of Ziklag and taking his property, including his wives, Ahinoam an Abigail.[2]

Amalekites

The "maximalist" understanding of the Bible regards this genealogy as literal. An understanding of the Bible as a cultural repository regards it as traditional ethnology rather than literal genealogy. In this latter view the Amalekites are related to the Edomites (consequently also to the Hebrews) and Horites. This can be concluded from the genealogy in Gen. 36:12; 1 Chr. 1:36. Amalek is a son of Esau's son Eliphaz and of the concubine Timna, a Horite and sister of Lotan. Amalek, for whatever reason, has become eponymous for the Amalekites. Gen. 36:16 refers to him as the "chief of Amalek." Thus even within a literalist perspective of the Bible, his name can be understood to be a title derived from that of the clan or territory over which he ruled.

An extra-Biblical tradition recorded by Nachmanides relates that the Amalekites were descended from a man named Amalek after whom Esau's grandson was later named. Such an eponymous ancestor of the Amalekites is also mentioned in Arab traditions. Some interpret Gen. 14:7 (which refers to the "land of the Amalekites"), to mean that the Amalekites existed as early as the time of Abraham, in the region that would later become the Roman province of Arabia Petraea [1]. This view corroborates Nachmanides' claim of an origin for the Amalekites earlier than Esau's grandson. However the passage in question does not require this interpretation as it may be referring to the region by a name from a later era. However, the Arab historian Masudi, citing traditional Arab history relates that the Amalekites did indeed exist at this early period having originated in the region of Mecca before the time of Abraham.

Proponents of the Documentary Hypothesis of biblical criticism conjecture that Genesis 14 is an isolated source apart from the proposed four main sources (J,E,P, and D) (Friedman, The Bible with Sources Revealed), and consider the mention of Amalekites in this chapter as simply a contradiction between sources.

In the Pentateuch, the Amalekites are nomads who attacked the Hebrews at Rephidim in the desert of Sinai during their exodus from Egypt: "smiting the hindmost, all that were feeble behind," (1 Samuel 15:2). The Tanakh recognizes the Amalekites as indigenous tribesmen, "the first of the nations" (Numbers 24:20) In the southern lowlands too, perhaps the dry grazing lands that are now the Negev (Num. 12, 14), there were aboriginal Amalekites who were daunting adversaries of the Hebrews in the earliest times. "They dwelt in the land of the south...from Havilah until thou comest to Shur" (Num. 13:29; 1 Sam. 15:7). At times said to be allied with the Moabites (Judg. 3:13) and the Midianites (Judges 6:3). Each of their kings bore the hereditary name of Agag (Num. 24:7; 1 Sam. 15:8). They also attacked the Israelites at Hormah (Num. 14:45). Saul defeated them utterly, but earned the wrath of God by sparing some for use as slaves, and failing to burn their treasures (1 Sam.). Saul also hesitated to kill Agag, at which point Samuel executed the Amalekite king himself.

In his controversial book Ages in Chaos, polymath Immanuel Velikovsky identified the Amalekites with the Hyksos.

Allies of the Amalekites

In the books of 1 Samuel and Judges, the tribe of Kenites are associated with the Amalekites, sometimes their allies, sometimes allied with the tribes of Israel. The Amalek people are invariably enemies of Israel. Saul's successful expedition against the unidentified "city of Amalek," in the plain (1 Sam. 15) resulted in the capture of the Amalekite king, Agag.

Genocide of the Amalekites

As the Jewish Encyclopedia put it, "David waged a sacred war of extermination against the Amalekites," who subsequently disappeared from history. Long after, in the time of Hezekiah, five hundred Simeonites annihilated the last remnant "of the Amalekites that had escaped" on Mount Seir, and settled in their place (1 Chr. 4:42-43).

The Biblical relationship between the Hebrew and Amalekite tribes was that the Hebrew tribes hated the Amalekites, primarily due to Amalek's attacking Israel on their way out of Egypt.

"8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.
"14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord is my banner, 16 saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." (Exodus 17)

This enmity is repeated in Numbers 24, in Balaam's fourth and final oracle:

"20 Then he looked on Amalek and took up his discourse and said, Amalek was the first among the nations, but its end is utter destruction.

And again in the law, in Deuteronomy 25:

"17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, 18 how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget."

The fighting is mentioned again in Judges 3:13, in the Judgeship of Ehud, and again under Gideon, as the Amalekites teamed up with the Midianites (Judges 6:3, 6:33, 7:12). This enmity is also the background of the command of the Lord to Saul:

"2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." (1 Sam. 15:2-3).

Saul's failure to obey this command cost him his kingship. Note the commentary on this total destruction later by Samuel, when Saul summons him from the dead through a medium:

"16 And Samuel said, 'Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. 18 Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day." (1 Sam 28)

Later Jewish tradition also commented on this event:

"He betook himself to slay the women and the children, and thought he did not act therein either barbarously or inhumanly; first, because they were enemies whom he thus treated, and, in the next place, because it was done by the command of God, whom it was dangerous not to obey" (Flavius Josephus, Antiquites Judicae, Book VI, Chapter 7).

Maimonides explains, however, that the commandment of killing out the nation of Amalek requires the Jewish people to peacefully request of them to accept upon themselves the Noachide laws and pay a tax to the Jewish kingdom. Only if they refuse is the commandment applicable.

The destruction of animals and booty, however, was not universal at Saul's time. This was evidently a command for a particular battle. His contemporary David handled the matter differently a few years later.

"8 Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt. 9And David would strike the land and would leave neither man nor woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments, and come back to Achish."

It is important, in Jewish tradition, that the plot to exterminate the Jews, as reported in the book of Esther, was carried out by Haman, an Agagite, or Amalekite. Because the Lord promised to "blot out the name" of Amalek, when the book of Esther is read at the Purim festival, the hearers make noise whenever "Haman" is mentioned, so his name is not heard.

See below for a current rabbinical teaching on the matter.

Symbolism of the Amalekites

In Jewish tradition, the Amalekites came to represent the archetypal enemy of the Jews. For example, Haman, from the Book of Esther, is called the Agagite, which is interpreted as being a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag.

The term has been used metaphorically to refer to enemies of Judaism throughout history, including the Nazis, and controversially, by some to refer to the Arabs. Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman taught in the name of Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan that the leaders of the Jewish communists and the secular Zionist movement descended from the Erev Rav from the seed of Amalek. Citation needed

Samuel's words to Agag: "As your sword bereaved women, so will your mother be bereaved among women." (Samuel 1:15:33) were repeated by Israeli president Itzhak Ben-Zvi in his letter turning down Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann's petition for mercy. [3]

Rejection of God

The concept has long been used by rabbis (particularly the Baal Shem Tov) to represent the rejection of God, or Atheism. Of the 613 mitzvot (commandments) followed by Orthodox Jews, three refer to the Amalekites: to remember what the Amalekites did to the Jews, to not forget what the Amalekites did to the Jews, and to destroy the Amalekites utterly. The rabbis derived these from Deuteronomy 25:17-18, Exodus 17:14 and 1 Sam. 15:3. Rashi explains the third mitzvah:

From man unto woman, from infant unto suckling, from ox unto sheep, so that the name of Amalek not be mentioned even with reference to an animal by saying "This animal belonged to Amalek".

Kings of the Amalekites

  • Agag (1 Sam. 15:8)

Listing of Amalek/Amalekite references in the Old Testament

Genesis 14:7; 36:12, 16

Exodus 17:8-11, 13-14, 16

Numbers 13:29; 14:25, 43, 45; 24:20; 25:19

Deuteronomy 25:17

Judges 3:13; 5:14; 6:3, 33; 7:12; 10:12; 12:15

1 Samuel 14:48;15:2-8, 15, 18, 20, 32; 27:8; 28:18; 30:1, 13, 18

2 Samuel 1:1, 8, 13; 8:12

1 Chronicles 1:36; 4:43; 18:11

Psalms 83:7

External links

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • The Punishment of Amalek in Jewish Tradition: Coping with the Moral Problem, Avi Sagi, Harvard Theological Review Vol.87, No.3 (1994) p.323-46.
  • Between Rephidim and Jerusalem, Elliott Horowitz. This introduction from the book Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence (Princeton University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-691-12491-9) examines the influence of the Amalek symbolism on relations between Israelis and Palestinians in the twenty-first century.

Footnotes

  1. Jericho here is refered to as the City of Palms. The passage seems to contradicted the Book of Joshua and later claims that the city remained in ruins until several centuries later.
  2. David is fortunate that the Amalekites do not kill all of the town's inhabitants, as David and Saul reportedly both did to Amalekite towns.
  3. Carmel, Yoseph, Itzchak Ben Zvi from his Diary in the President's office , Mesada , Ramat Gan, 1967 , page 179

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