During this same period, it would seem that a branch of the Amalekite tribe had secured a settlement in Mount Ephraim. Pirathoa, the residence of the judge Abdon, some 15 miles south-west of Shechem, bore the name of ' the Mount of the Amalekites,' or had in it a hill so called (Jg 12"). The settlers who had thus given their name to the hill belonged in all proba- bility to a branch of the Amalekites, who, about the time that some of their brethren settled in the south of Palestine, in what was afterward assigned to Judah, pressed farther to the north, and secured possessions among other Canaanite tribes in the very centre of the land. This is more likely than the suggestion of Bertheau, that these Amalekites of Ephraim were remnants of those expelled by the men of Judah from their southern settlements in the days of Joshua. They had evidently been some considerable time in possession before locjilities came to be popularly known by their name. This view is furtlier confirmed by the words of Deborah in her song (Jg 5"), ' out of Ephraim came they down whose root is in (not against, as in AV ) Amalek.' The land of Ephraim was the territory once possessed by the Amalekites.
In the early years of his reign, Saul was commis- sioned to carry on a war of extermination against the Amalekites and their king Agag (IS 15). This was intended to be the execution of the sentence passed upon them in the days of Moses (Ex 17", Nu 24", Dt 25"-'*). No li\-ing thing belonging to the Amalekites was to be spared! This great battle was evidently fought in the south of Judah, as the pursuit is described as extending from Havilah in Arabia, far to the ea.st, to Shur in the west of the desert on the border of Egypt. Wliun worsted in battle they evidently pas.^erl over the southern boundary of Palestine, and betook them- selves to their ancestral haunts in the wild desert. During the jieriod of their residence as a settled people in Southern Judah, they had a capital- citv, Ir-.\malek, 'the city of Amalek' (1 S 15°). Koliber bands of the yet unsubdued nomad Anialek
amam
AMAZED
79
lies of the desert, durinfj the time of David's ^tay among tlie FhilLstines, sacked Ziklag, in tlie tem- torj' of Simeon, outside of the southern boundary of Jiidah (1 S 30). 'I'hese were overtaken by David, and only 400 young men on swift camels Buccee<led in making their escape. The reference to the Amalekites in 2 S 8", in the list of spoils dedicated to tiod by David, is prohabl3' to this same incident. From tliia time onward the Amalek- ites seem to liivve been regarded as no longer formidable ; and even as raiders from the desert we find no further trace of them The last mention of them in the OT occurs in I Ch 4*", in the days of Hezekiah. There it is said that ' tlie renmant of the Amalekites that escaped,' and who had con- tinae<l till that day in Mount Seir, were smitten by 500 of the Simeonites, who took possession of their land. Tli>it the Amalekites are not men- tioned in Gn 10 is regarded bj' DUhnann as proof that before the time of the writer they liad sunk into insignificance.
Outside of the OT we have no reliable accounts of the Amalekites. In the works of the Arabian historians very extensive and detailed reports are given of the progTess and achievements of the Amalekites ; hut these, as Noldeke has conWncingly sliown, are creiiible only in so far as they are based on the statements of the historical books of our own canonical Scriptures.
LlTBRATTRE. — A very admirable ftnd comprehensive sketch Is given by Berlht-au in SclienkelL BibeVexicon, Leipz, 18(J9, vol. i. 111-114. Bee also Dillmanii, dom. on (Jenesit, on cbs. x. and xitivl. ; EwaW, Hist, of Isnul, Eng. tr. 1S76, vol. 1. 109 f., 850 r. ; Kurtz, History nf tht Old Covmant, Eng. tr. 1850, iii. 48- 60 ; Noldeke, Vthf.r di€ Amaitkiter UTui einuje anderr Stiehhar. volkrr der l$mliUT, 1864.
J. Macpukkson. AMAM 'c~¥), Jos 15^ only. — An unknown city of Judah, in the desert south of Beersheba.
AMAN.— 1. {'A/xdv A) Is mentioned in Tobit's dying words as the persecutor of Achiacharus, To U". Cod. H, however, has 'ASd/i ; « yiaSafi ; Itala, Nabad ; Syr. Ahah. Possibly the allusion is to Haman and MordecaL 2. list 12" W-". See Haman. J. T. Marshall.
AMANA (ijct;), Ca 4'. Probably the mountains near the river Abana or Amana, being connected with Hermon and Lebanon ; or else Mount Amanus in the north of Syria.
C. R. CONDER.
AMARIAH (i.-i=S, 'n."!=5 'J' hath promised').— 1. 2 Ch 19", high priest in the reign of Jehosha- phat, appointed by liim cliief justice ' in all matters of the Lord,' as Zebaduih, ' the ruler of the house of Judah,' was ' in all tin- king's matters.' (Is this a precedent for the joint rule in later times of Zenibhabel and Joshua ?) 2, 3. In a cenealogy in 1 Ch G'""-"""", Ezr 7'"', beganniiig with Aaron and ending with Jchozadak at the Captivity, which seems as much intended to be a list of the high priests as 1 Ch a'"" is of the kings of Judah, and which aiipcars to be the basis of .Josephus' very corrupt lists {AnL VIII. i. 3, x. viii. 6), the name A. occurs twice — (a) 1 Ch 6'-" grandfather of Zadok, and therefore a younger contemjiorary of Kli. Of this man we have no other record ; see AliiATHAR. (/9) 1 Ch 6", Ezr 7", 1 Es 8^, 2 Es 1' (Amarias in Apocr. ), son to the Azariah who is sail) to have ministered in Solomon's temple. If, as is iirolfible, this remark applies to the previous Azariah, then this Amariah may be the same as No. 1. I'ut great uncertainty iiangs over these lists. In Ezr 7''° six names are omitted, perhaps by homoioteleuton ; in the full list important names {e.g. Jehoiada, Zechariah, the Azariahs con- temjiorary with Uzziah and Hezekiah respectively, Urijah) are omitted ; the succession ' Amariah,