A , , !. /it i . 7 ;/ nVw« „ „ ~r„ 4. settlements on its southern borders to attack them at
Amalek (Heb. Amalek , pWJ, according to _, ,.,. ^, , , T , .., ,
_ , , .,,,.' T ■ ,, rT Eeohidim. Moses commanded Joshua with a chosen
Furst from the Arabic, dweller in a valley ■ Sept. 1)an(1 f() ;|U;u.k the Amalckit^ whilc he< with Aaron
^'"If; ^^S^^S^^IS.^?-?^" and Ilur, went up to the mount of Horeb. During
the battle Moses held up his hands to heaven ; and as long as they were maintained in this attitude the
(the first-born of Esau) by his concubine Timna (Gen. xxxvi, 12; 1 Chron. i, 36); he was the chieftain, or
emir (« Duke'*), of an Idum*an tribe (Gen. xxxvi, \ IsRlcliteR preVililcfl but when through wariness they 1,. however, was probably not the same with | ^ t,)e Amal(.kitos preVailcd. (See Verpoorten, De
beUo hi Amalek, tied. 1736; Sartorius, De hello Domini
the Am m.i.kitks (q. v.) so often mentioned in Scrip-
ture (Num. xxiv, 20, etc.). B.C. post 1905. His nVotbcr came of the Ilorite race, whose territory the de- scendants of Esau had Beized; and, although Amalek himself is represented as of equal rank with the other sons of Eliphaz, yet his posterity appear to have shared the fate >>( the Horite population, a "remnant" only being mentioned as existing in Edom in the time of Hezekiah, when they were dispersed by a band of the tribe of Simeon (1 ( Ihron. iv. 13).
Am'alelrito (Heb. Amaleki', "■""""', also the simple Amalek, used collectively; Sept. 'AjuaX^K,
in Amalek, Danz. 1736.) Aaron and Hur, seeing this, held up his hands till the latter were entirely defeated with great slaughter (Exod. xvii, 8-13 ; comp. Deut. xxv. 17; 1 Sam. xv, 2). In union with the Canaan- ites they again attacked the Israelites on the borders of Palestine, and defeated them near Hormah (Num. xiv, 45). Thenceforward we hear of them only as a secondary power, at one time in league with the Moab- itcs (Judg. iii, 13), when they were defeated by Ehud near Jericho ; at another time in league with the Mid- ianites (Judg. vi, 3), when they penetrated into the
AMALEKITE
187
AMAMA
plain of Esdraelon, and were defeated by Gideon. Saul in his expedition overran their whole district and inflicted immense loss upon them, but spared Agag, their king, and the best of the cattle and the mova- bles, contrary to the divine command (1 Sam. xiv, 48 ; xv, 2 sq.). After this the Amalekites scarcely appear any more in history (1 Sam. xxvii, 8; 2 Sam. viii, 12). Their power was thenceforth broken, and they degen- erated into a horde of banditti ("Nia, predatory band). Such a "troop" came and pillaged Ziklag, which be- longed to David (1 Sam. xxx) ; but he returned from an expedition which he had made in the company of Achish into the valley of Jezreel, pursued them, over- took and dispersed them, and recovered all the booty which they had carried off from Ziklag. This com- pleted their political destruction, as predicted (Num. xxiv, 20) ; for the small remnant of Amalekites whose excision by the Simeonites is spoken of in 1 Chron. iv, 43, were the descendants of another family. See Amalek. Yet we meet again with the name of Am- alek (according to Josephus, Ant. xi, 6, 5) in the his- tory of Esther, in the person of Hainan the Agagite, in Esth. iii, 1, 10 : viii, 3, 5, who was most likely an Amalekite of the royal house of Agag (Num. xxiv, 7; 1 Sam. xv, 8), that fled from the general carnage, and escaped to the court of Persia.
The Arabians relate of the Amalek destroyed by Saul that he was the father of an ancient tribe in Arabia, which contained only Arabians called pure, the remains of whom were mingled with the posterity of Joktan and Adnan. According to Josephus (Ant. iii, 2, 1), the Amalekites inhabited Gobolitis (Psa. lxxiii, 8) and Petra, and were the most warlike of the nations in those parts (comp. Ant. ii, 1, 2); and else- where he speaks of them as "reaching from Pelusium of Egypt to the Red Sea" (Ant. vi, 7, 3). We find, also, that they had a settlement in that part of Pal- estine whicli was allotted to the tribe of Ephraim (Judg. xii, 15; see also v, 14). According to Schwarz (Palest, p. 219), traces of this name are preserved in that region to this day. The editor of Calmet sup- poses that there were no less than three distinct tribes of Amalekites : (1.) Amalek the ancient, re- ferred to in Gen. xiv; (2.) A tribe in the region east of Egypt, between Egypt and Canaan (Exod. xvii, 8; 1 Sam. xv, etc.); (3.) Amalek, the descendants of Eliphaz. No such distinction, however, appears to be made in the biblical narrative, at least as re- gards the former two of these tribes ; their national character is everywhere the same, and the different localities in which we find these Amalekites may be easily explained by their habits, which evidently were such as belong to a warlike nomade people (lieland, Palwst. p. 78 sq. ; Mannert, Geogr. VI, i, 183 sq.). Arabian writers mention Amalika, Amalik, Imlik, as an aboriginal tribe of their country, descended from Ham (Abulfeda says from Shem), and more ancient than the Ishmaelites (D'Herbelot, Bib!. Orient, s. v. Amlac; De Sacy, Excerpta ex Abulf. in Poeocke's Specim. p. 513 sq. ; Miehaelis, Spicileg. i, 170 sq.). They also give the same name to the Philistines and other C'anaanites, and assert that the Amalekites who were conquered by Joshua passed over to North Af- rica (Ewald, Isr. Gesch. i, 300, 450). Philo (Vita Moysis, i, 39) calls the Amalekites who fought with the Israelites on leaving Egypt Phoenicians. The same writer interprets the name Amalek as meaning "a people that licks up or exhausts" (Legis Allegm iii, 66). From the scriptural notices of their location south of Palestine (Num. xiii, 2V), in the region trav- ersed by the Israelites (Exod. xvii, 8 sq.), and their connection with the Ammonites (Judg. iii, 13), Midian- ites (Judg. vi, 3; vii, 12), Kenites (1 Sam. xv, 6), as well as their neighborhood to the Philistines (1 Sam. xxvii, 8), Mount Soir (1 Chron. v, 43), and the city of Shur or Pelusium (1 Sam. xv, 7), it is evident that their proper territory was bounded by Philistia, Egypt,