Exodus 17 describes Israels first encounter with the wandering Amalekites at Rephidim, a place between the wilderness of Sin and the wilderness of Sinai (Exod 17:1; 19:2), at which the Israelites camped in their Exodus journey from Egypt. He was born to Eliphaz by his concubine Timna (Gen 36:12) was one of the tribal chiefs (, H477) of Edom (Gen 36:16, 17). It will ever conflict, but need not conquer. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'" . David [12] They appear to have lived a nomadic or seminomadic lifestyle along the fringes of southern Canaan's agricultural zone. This verse records the words of God through the prophet Samuel to Saul, "Now go and attack the Amalekites and completely destroy everything they have. This brought a curse of ultimate annihilation from Moses (Ex 17:14-16, Deut 25:19) and Balaam (Num 24:20). That is the danger of dominion. read in Amalek. Judges 6:3, 33; 7:12 depict the Amalekites joining forces with the Midianites (who seem to have wandered in the area of Sinai [Exod 4:19] and wilderness E of Paran [1 Kings 11:18]; and also in the territory E of Gilead [Judg 8:4-12]), and making camel raids against the agriculture communities of Israel as far S as Gaza (6:3, 4). 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy a . and his associate kings subdued among others, all the country of the Amalekites, which reference need not be taken as an anachronism, but is to be understood as possibly a different Amalek, or better, that the term is used to identify the land which later became the home of the Amalekite descendants of Esau. After the victories of Saul and David the Amalekites ceased to be a factor of any influence in the border regions of Judah and the Negev, just as the Midianites had after the war of Gideon. Observing this connection, there is no need, as some have attempted, to emend the text of Judges 1:16 from the people (Heb. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. In rabbinic literature, the reasons for the unusual eternal remembrance of Amalek are the following: (1) Amalek is the irreconcilable enemy and it is forbidden to show mercy foolishly to one wholly dedicated to the destruction of Israel (PR 12:47). 3:1213). Why do you think they all lived in that city? We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. These locations are uncertain but probably do not account for every nomadic clan of Amalekites, especially if they lived among other groups. In the course of time this biblical injunction became so deeply rooted in Jewish thought that many important enemies of Israel were identified as direct descendants of Amalek. Obviously, some Amalekites escaped Saul's army. By the time Aaron died, the final location of the Staff was lost, although it was believed to have been stolen from Solomons Temple around the same time as the Ark of the Covenant. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. Who a person is toward the line of promise is who that person is before God. 3:26) and the areas mentioned in the previous verses (I Chron. Maybe the name stuck to the new people group even if they had no direct blood ties to Amalek. In Leviticus 27:32, a rod was used by the priests to count the tithe. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. (1 Samuel 15:23 ESV). Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. It seems that somehow or other, an Amalekite or two continued to survive and their theme always seems to be the destruction of the Jewish people: Aka Haman. Amalekite, member of an ancient nomadic tribe, or collection of tribes, described in the Old Testament as relentless enemies of Israel, even though they were closely related to Ephraim, one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Amalek, a son of Esau's son Eliphaz, was presumably the eponymous ancestor of the Amalekites. During the reign of King Hezekiah, a group of Simeonites killed the remaining Amalekites who had been living in the hill country of Seir (1 Chronicles 4:4243). Amalek, a son of Esau's son Eliphaz, was presumably the eponymous ancestor of the Amalekites. d. In the time of David. When the nation was weak and vulnerable the Amalekites attacked the weakest and most vulnerable of the nation ( Deuteronomy 25:18 ). Evidently the Amalekites had some cities, as this one, in which they sometimes settled, and possibly fulfilled religious obligations as has been shown was the case of nomadic tribes in the Trans-Jordan in connection with a 15th cent. If we confess our sins and hide ourselves under the merit of his blood on the cross, we may be forgiven and by his Holy Spirit, restored. This principle remains active throughout the entire Old Testament. Their supposed founder was one Esau's sons, namely Amalek. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. 4. The New Testament Apostles did not understand that reality to have been nullified by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, rather they understood this Old Testament story, and others like it, as: an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly (2 Peter 2:6 ESV). Early history. In the light of Amaleks past harassment of Israel the Lord commanded Saul to exterminate this enemy (1 Sam 15:1-3). They did this for no reasons except violence and greed. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. 6:17 ff.). Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. also Judg 10:12). We have many examples including the giant king Og. It has been suggested by Moshe Kochavi that the ir Amaleq, (city of Amalek) referred to at 1 Samuel 15:5 may be identified with the site at Khirbet eI-Meshash (Tel Masos) on the periphery of the Wadi Beer-sheba, some 12 kilometres east of the city of Beer Sheva itself. There may be geographical significance in the listing of Amalek after Edom in the Song of Balaam (Num. The line of promise thus becomes the locus of blessing and cursing in the world. In the biblical traditions, Israel, after sinning through cowardice and lack of faith as a result of the discouraging report of the spies, turned around and "defiantly marched to the crest of the hill country" (Num. According to I Samuel 15:7, "Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of (or close to) Egypt." He Was a Descendant of Amalek The Book of Esther tells us that Haman was a descendant of Amalek , a nation known for its hatred of the Jewish people. is there such a thing as "right to be heard"? Horovitz and I.A. The term "city of Amalek" is not to be understood literally, and it is possible that it means a fortified camp. David pursued the Amalekites, defeated all but four hundred of them, and took back all that had been stolen ( 1 Samuel 30:17-20 ). The RSV in Judges 5:14 wrongly changes the words in Amalek to into the valley, although that v. indicates in a footnote that the Heb. Among these traditions we find that Amalekites attacked the Israelites in a pitched battle at Rephidim, which, to judge by the Bible (Ex. What is this brick with a round back and a stud on the side used for? Horeb. Esau and Amalek are a type of Satan who was ousted by Jesus' redemptive cross and lost his place of rulership over all who possess the born again birthright via being bought and paid for by the precious blood of the Lamb (Romans 5:9; 2 Corinthians 5:15-21; Colossians 2:14-19; 1 Peter 1:18-19, etc. The command imposed on Saul to subject the Amalekites to the ban (erem), however, conforms to the version in Deuteronomy. They Amalekites ranged fairly widely, having originated as one of the Edomite tribes. All the tragedies which Israel suffered are considered the direct outcome of Amalek's hostile act (PdRK 27). Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. (1 Samuel 15:23). They were among the nomadic raiders defeated by Gideon and were condemned to annihilation by Samuel. He only attacked one city in Havilah. How come David fought an Amalekite army that Saul has already eradicated a few years earlier? And David recovered all that the It is related that when Samuel put Agag to death he said "As your sword has bereaved women, so shall your mother be the most bereaved of women" (I Sam. They were among the nomadic raiders defeated by Gideon and were condemned to annihilation by Samuel. in "hill country of Seir." Here we have an example of not the extermination of the Northern Ten Tribes but exiling them and replacing them with other people groups. 6 Where was Moses holding up his arms during the Battle of Refidim? Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. 3 Why did God want to destroy the Amalekites? First God must prepare a renewed humanity, and only then can there be a restored cosmos. NY: Behrman House, Inc. 1976. [40][41][42][43] It has also been described as genocidal, according to genocide scholars like Norman Naimark.[44][45][46][47]. Therefore, all who are wise will forsake their sin and seek absolution through the means that he provides. It was situated in the mountains where nomads brought cattle to drink. In Genesis 1 we are told: Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. [28] While considerable knowledge about nomadic Arabs has been recovered through archeological research, no specific artifacts or sites have been linked to Amalek with any certainty. What should I follow, if two altimeters show different altitudes? Answer: The Amalekites were a tribe first mentioned during the time of Abraham ( Genesis 14:7 ). This implies that Israel is commanded to wage a holy war of extermination against Amalek (Deut. - Amalek & Israel - Land & People - The Amalekites & the Kenites - In the Aggadah Amalek and Israel It seems probable that the wanderings of the Amalekites, or of a particular part of them, extended as far as Transjordan in the neighborhood of Moab or Ammon. While the Jews were still in Rephidim, the Amalekites, a mightily and fierce people, descendants of Esau, and well-trained in the art of warfare, suddenly attacked the people of Israel.It was an unprovoked and cowardly attack upon a tired and weary people, just liberated from slavery, on the way to their homeland. They persisted and progressed in sin and wickedness. 5:23). In the wilderness wanderings. The Vulgate also names David as the author. And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the Go and attack the Amalekites and completely destroy everything they have. and more. Jesus compares the final judgment to the work of a shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats. Save 15% on BibleGateway+ with code SPRINGSTUDY15. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. This put the line of promise in immediate danger: But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abrams wife. Jewish Literacy. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Was David responsible for Saul's insane order to slaughter everyone in the city of Nob (1 Sam. 30:14). Amalek, "the first of the nations" (Num. Suppose something similar occurred here, the Amalekites were completely killed off and some neighbors seeing the Amalekite cities empty sought to take advantage, moves in and became a people. Saul was severely rebuked for this incomplete job and his attempt at "spin" by suggesting that all had been eliminated when, clearly, they had not. The Amalekites were a fierce race of nomads who inhabited the desert to the south of Judaea towards Egypt. ; LXX ) to Amalekite (), to try to make agreement with 1 Samuel 15:6, since the connection of the Kenites in these two passages is clear and evidence for changing the text is lacking. Id say yes, if I had to guess. The Amalekites are not simply threatening a people group with their determination to wipe out Israel, but they are a threat to the salvation plan of God for all other nations. This may indicate that Agag's military success was proverbial. To touch the people of God is to touch God. When God in judgment withdrew His hand of blessing and ordered them to go back S into the wilderness (14:1-25), the people again disobeyed God, and with their own feeble effort attacked the Amalekites. The Amalekites took part in the battles in the valley of Jezreel (6:33; 7:12) and perhaps also in the Jordan Valley, but there is no evidence that Gideon also fought with the Amalekites in his pursuit of the Midianites in Transjordan. Sauls rebellion against God was so serious that he was rejected by God as king: For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. [25], In the exegesis of Numbers 24:20 concerning Balaam's utterance: "Amalek was the first one of the nations, but his end afterward will be even his perishing", Richard Watson attempts to associate this passage to the "first one of the nations" that developed post-Flood. In the biblical genealogical system, Amalek is the son of Esau's son Eliphaz by Eliphaz's concubine Timna (Gen. 36:12). The Amalekites harassed the Hebrews during their Exodus from Egypt and attacked them at Rephidim near Mount Sinai, where they were defeated by Joshua. How come David fought an Amalekite army that Saul had allegedly eradicated a few years earlier? The Amalekites (/mlkats/[6]) were considered to be Amalek's descendants through the genealogy of Esau. The Amalekites harassed the Hebrews during their Exodus from Egypt and attacked them at Rephidim near Mount Sinai, where they were defeated by Joshua. King Herod and his family were Idumean [Edomite] converts to Judaism, and Amalekites may have lived there long after the tribe fades from the biblical record. [27], Although Egyptian and Assyrian monumental inscriptions and records of the period survive which list various tribes and peoples of the area, no reference has ever been found to Amalek or the Amalekites. It is a reminder that those who persist in sin will face the certain and awful judgment of the Lord. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. For Sauls failure to fulfill completely the divine command, Samuel announced to the monarch the Lords rejection of him as king (1 Sam 15:10-23). King David fought several battles with the Amalekites (1 Sam 27:8, 30:1, 17, 18). After Rephidim, the next major encounter with Amalek came following the report of the spies to Israel that the enemy to the N of Kadesh-barnea in the wilderness of Paran in S Canaan, including the Amalekite forces which dwelt in the land of the Negeb, were too strong to conquer, despite the pleadings of Caleb and Joshua to the contrary (Num 13:25-33; 14:38). 12:15), but serves to indicate the warlike nature of Ephraim, beside Benjamin. See 1 Samuel 15:7 where Saul is said to have defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. This seems to have been the same general area inhabited by the Ishmaelites about whom it is stated: They dwelt from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria (Gen 25:18). 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:2223 ESV). 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. What does the word Baca mean in the Bible? Perhaps the author merely wishes to define the normal range of the nomadic Amalekites in the time of Saul. Their final defeat occurred in the time of Hezekiah. God has a settled antagonism against sin. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way. Inasmuch as contemporary archaeology has convinced most biblicists that the biblical traditions of enslavement in Egypt, wilderness wandering, and conquest of the land are unhistorical, traditions about Amalek and Israel in the pre-settlement period probably reflect later realities. Some believe that this Amalekite patronage of the Kenites is also mentioned in Judges 1:16, reading (in accordance with a few Septuagint manuscripts and the Latin Vulgate version) "and they settled with the Amalekite" instead of "and they settled with the people." identifies Amalek with Rome (Bacher, Tann, 1 (19302), 146). 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. For example, Rabbi Hayim Palaggi stated: We can rely on the maxim that in ancient times, Sennacherib confused the lineage of many nations. the Amalekites in a specific citynot on a massive geographical scale (c.f. Judg 12:15 and remarks earlier). [10] First-century Roman-Jewish scholar and historian Flavius Josephus refers to Amalek as a 'bastard' () in a derogatory sense. For this sin, God damned the Amalekites, commanding the Jews to wage a holy war to exterminate them. At first these nations were afraid to join Amalek, but he persuaded them by saying: "Come, and I shall advise you what to do. What is the Russian word for the color "teal"? 1 Sam. The Defeat of Amalek. This may be seen in the record of Saul's wars in which the war of Amalek receives special mention: "He did valiantly, and smote the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hands of those who plundered them" (I Sam. 47:19). The Amalekites seem to have been fairly well controlled under the monarchy, for the OT does not mention them again until the time of Hezekiah (c. 700 b.c.) 15 And Samuel said to Saul, "The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore hearken to the words of the Lord. The flood did not just destroy rebellious adult men and women it killed everything and everyone not in the ark. When Adam and Eve sin they are exiled from the garden and condemned to die: you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Genesis 3:19 ESV). "Amalek was the first of the nations, But his end shall be destruction." Amalekites Defeated by david 1 Samuel 27:8-9 Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites; for they were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times, as you come to Shur even as far as the land of Egypt. What would make it complete?And they shall come back here in the fourth gene. Thus, in 1 Samuel 15:3, it was considered necessary to destroy the livestock in order to destroy Amalek.[32]. It only takes a minute to sign up. An ancient marauding people in the S of Canaan and the Negeb who were fierce enemies of Israel particularly in the earlier part of her history. Rather in Numbers 24:20 Amalek as first is to be understood as its being the first among the nations to attack Israel in her Exodus experiences (cf. When wicked human beings exercise dominion, everything they touch is cursed. Because of this and their many other sins, God vowed to blot them out from under heaven (Ex. Amalekites oppresses Israel with the help of Moab (Judges 3:12, 13), Amalekites appressed Israel with the help of Midian (Judges 6:3, 7:12). 1 Samuel 15 Easy-to-Read Version Saul Destroys the Amalekites 15 One day Samuel said to Saul, "The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. In I Chronicles 4:4243, some obscure information has been preserved about the remnant of Amalek. Because of Sauls failure to wipe out the Amalekites, they continued to harass and plunder the Israelites over hundreds of years. Matthew George Easton advocated that the Amalekites were not descendants of Amalek by taking a literal approach to Genesis 14:7. However, in 1 Samuel 15:2 this people were still flourishing. On the analogy of the genealogies of the sons of Nahor by concubinage (Gen. 22:24) and of Abraham's sons by Keturah and Hagar it may be surmised that Amalek's genealogy was intended to imply his special status as a nomad as distinct from the sedentary Edomites, in the same way as the Ishmaelites or the children of Keturah were distinct from the sedentary descendants of Abraham. Within this period of the Judges the Amalekites were associated with the Moabites, Ammonites, and Midianites in their marauding activities. (1 Samuel 15:23 ESV). [55], Theologian Charles Ellicott explains that the Amalekites were subject to cherem in the Book of Samuel for the purposes of incapacitation, due to their 'accursed' nature and the threat they posed to the commonwealth of surrounding nations. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. When the Israelites left Egypt and set out toward Canaan (see Exodus 17:8 ff. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. This is borne out by Judges 12:15 where the area of Ephraim around the town Pirathon (not far from present-day Nablus) is called the hill country of the Amalekites. See 1 Samuel 27:5-7 and 30:1 for the fact that Amalek raided Philistine towns like Ziklag (a few m. N of Beersheba) which Achish, king of Gath, had given to David. [11], According to the Bible, the Amalekites inhabited the Negev. 17:6, 7, 816; 18:5), is in the neighborhood of Horeb; if the locality Massah and Meribah (17:7) is to be found in the region of Kadesh-Barnea or is identical with it (Num. Was Samuel referring to Saul in 1 Samuel 8:10-17? Start for FREE. Nur Masalha, Elliot Horowitz, and Josef Stern suggest that Amalekites have come to represent an "eternally irreconcilable enemy" that wants to murder Jews, that Jews in post-biblical times sometimes associate contemporary enemies with Haman or Amalekites, and that some Jews believe that pre-emptive violence is acceptable against such enemies. ), they were one of the first nations the Israelites encountered. Agag (/ e /; Hebrew: gg) is a Northwest Semitic name or title applied to a biblical king.It has been suggested that "Agag" was a dynastic name of the kings of Amalek, just as Pharaoh was used as a dynastic name for the ancient Egyptians.
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