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AMALEKITES

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 778 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AMALEKITES , an See also:

ancient tribe, or collection of tribes, in the See also:south and south-See also:east of See also:Palestine, often mentioned in the Old Testament as foes of the Israelites. They were regarded as a See also:branch of the Edomites (Gen. See also:xxxvi. 12, see See also:Doom), and appear to have numbered among their divisions the See also:Kenites. When the Israelites were journeying from See also:Egypt to the See also:land of See also:Canaan, the Amalekites are said to have taken See also:advantage of their weak See also:condition to harry the stragglers in the See also:rear, and as a See also:judgment for their hostility it was ordained that their memory should be blotted out from under See also:heaven (Deut. See also:xxv. 17-19). An allusion to this appears in the See also:account of See also:Israel's defeat on the occasion of the See also:attempt to force a passage from Kadesh through Hormah, evidently into Palestine (Num. xiv. 43-45, cp. Deut. i. 44-46). The statements are obscure, and elsewhere Hormah is the See also:scene of a victory over the Canaanites by Israel (Num. xxi. r-3), or by the tribes See also:Judah and See also:Simeon (Judg. i. 17). The question is further complicated by the account of See also:Joshua's overthrow of Amalek apparently in the Sinaitic See also:peninsula.

The event was commemorated by the erection of the See also:

altar" Yahwehnissi " (" Yahweh my banner " or " memorial "), and rendered even more memorable by the utterance, "Yahweh hath sworn: Yahweh will have See also:war with Amalek from See also:generation to generation " (Ex. xvii. 8-16, on its See also:present position, see Exonus [Boor]). The same sentiment recurs in Yahweh's command to See also:Saul to destroy Amalek utterly for its hostility to Israel (i Sam. xv.), and in See also:David's retaliatory expedition when he distributed among his See also:friends the spoil of the " enemies of Yahweh " (See also:xxx. 26). Saul himself, according to one tradition, was slain by an Amalekite (2 Sam. i., contrast r Sam. xxxi.). A similar spirit appears among the prophecies ascribed to See also:Balaam: " Amalek, first (or See also:chief) of nations, his latter end [will be] destruction " (Num. See also:xxiv. 20). The See also:district of Amalek See also:lay to the south of Judah (cp. i Chron. iv. 42 seq.), probably between Kadesh and Hormah (cp. Gen. xiv. 7; 1 Sam. xv. 7, See also:xxvii.

8), and the interchange of the ethnic with " Canaanites " and " See also:

Amorites " suggests that the Amalekites are merely one of Israel's traditional enemies of the older See also:period. Hence we find them taking See also:part with See also:Ammonites and Midianites (Judg. iii. 13, vi. 3), and their See also:king Agag, slain by See also:Samuel as a sacrificial offering (1 Sam. xv. 9), was a byword for old-See also:time might and See also:power (Num. xxiv. 7). Even in one of the See also:Psalms (lxxxiii. 7) Amalek is mentioned among the enemies of Israel—just as See also:Greek writers of the 6th See also:century of this era applied the old See also:term Scythians to the Goths (See also:Noldeke);-and the traditional hostility between Saul and Amalek is reflected still later in the See also:book of See also:Esther where Haman the Agagite is pitted against Mordecai the Benjamite. Twice Amalek seems to be mentioned as occupying central Palestine (Judg. v. 14, sii. 15), but the passages are textually uncertain. The name is celebrated in Arabian tradition, but the statements regarding them are confused and conflicting, and for See also:historical purposes are practically worthless, as has been proved by Th.

Noldeke (Ueber See also:

die Amalekiter, See also:Gottingen, 1864). ' On the biblical data, see also E. See also:Meyer, Die Israeliten (See also:Index, s.v.). , (S. A.

End of Article: AMALEKITES

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