Amalekites

The Amalekites are figures in the Hebrew Bible described as the descendants of Amalek, who was the grandson of Esau through Eliphaz and his concubine Timna. In biblical tradition, they were a nomadic or semi-nomadic people inhabiting parts of the southern Levant, including the Negev and the Sinai corridor, during the late second millennium BCE. They are presented as perennial adversaries of the Israelites.

In the Exodus narrative, the Amalekites attacked the Israelites at Rephidim, prompting a battle in which Moses, aided by Aaron and Hur, held up his hands while Joshua led the fighting. Israel prevailed as long as Moses’s hands were raised. The Amalekites are then commanded to be fought by Israel, with a divine judgment that their memory should be blotted out.

In later biblical history, Saul was commanded in 1 Samuel 15 to utterly destroy the Amalekites, including their king Agag. Saul defeats them but spares Agag and keeps some livestock, an act criticized by the prophet Samuel, who then executes Agag. In the following chapter, David and his men defeat a roaming Amalekite force that had raided Ziklag and taken captives.

Scholarly discussion about the Amalekites addresses their historicity and exact identity. Some scholars view them as a distinct political-ethnic group in the southern Levant, while others see them as a literary construct or a confederation of raiders associated with Edom. No decisive extra-biblical archaeological evidence confirms their specific existence, and the term Amalek also serves in later Jewish and Christian literature as a symbolic representation of Israel’s enemies.