AMALEK, the son of Eliphaz, by Timna his concubine, and the grandson of Esau. (Gen. xxxvi. 12, and 1 Chr. i. 36.) Amalek succeeded Gatam in the government of Edom. He was the father of the Amalekites, a powerful people who dwelt in Arabia Petraea, between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, or between Havila and Shur (1 Sam. xv. 7), sometimes in one canton and sometimes in another. It does not appear that they had cities, for there is no mention of any but one in the Scriptures (1 Sam. XV. 5): they lived generally in hamlets, caves, or tents.

The Israelites had scarcely passed the Red Sea on their way to the wilderness, before the Amalekites came to attack them in the deserts of Rephidim (Exod. xvii. 8, &c.), and cruelly put to the sword those who were obliged either through fatigue or weakness to remain behind. Moses, by divine command, directed Joshua to fall upon this people,—to record in a book the act of inhumanity which they had committed, in order to have it always before their eyes,—and to revenge it in the most remarkable manner. Joshua therefore fell upon the Amalekites and defeated them, while Moses was upon the mountain, with Aaron and Hur in company. Moses, during the time of the engagement, held up his hands, to which the success of the battle was owing; for as often as he let them down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands being tired, Aaron and Hur supported his arms, and held them extended while the battle lasted, which was from the morning till the approach of night, when the Amalekites were cut in pieces. This happened in the year of the world 2513, before Christ 1491.

The ground of the enmity of the Amalekites against the Israelites is generally supposed to have been an innate hatred, from the remembrance of Jacob’s depriving their [7:2:584]progenitor both of his birthright and blessing. Their falling upon them, however, and that without any provocation, when they saw them reduced to so low a condition by the fatigue of their march and an excessive drought, was an inhuman action, and justly deserved the severe punishment inflicted on them by Joshua. Under the Judges (v. 3), we see the Amalekites united with the Midianites and Moabites in a design to oppress Israel; but Ehud delivered the Israelites from Eglon, king of the Moabites (Judg. iii.), and Gideon (chap, viii.) delivered them from the Midianites and Amalekites. About the year of the world 2930, Saul marched against the Ama-lekites, advanced as far as their capital, and put all the people of the country to the sword; but he spared the best of the cattle and movables, contrary to a divine command; which act of disobedience was the cause of his future misfortunes.

After this war the Amalekites scarcely appear any more in history. However, about the year of the world 2949, a troop of Amalekites came and pillaged Ziklag, which belonged to David (1 Sam. xxx.), where he had left his two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail; but he returning from an expedition which he had made in the company of Achish into the valley of Jezreel, pursued them, overtook and dispersed them, and recovered all the booty which they had carried off from Ziklag.

The Arabians maintain that Amalek was the son of Ham, and grandson of Noah; that he was the father of Ad, and grandfather of Schedad. Calmet thinks that this opinion is by no means to be rejected, as it is not very probable that Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, and grandson of Esau, should be the father of a people so powerful and numerous as the Amalekites were when the Israelites departed out of Egypt. Moses, in the book of Genesis (xiv. 7), relates, that in Abraham’s time, long before the birth of Amalek the son of Eliphaz, the five confederate kings carried the war into Amalek’s country, about Ka-desh; and into that of the Amorites, about Hazezon-tamar. The same Moses (Num. xxiv. 20) relates, that the diviner Balaam, observing at a distance the land of Ama-lek, said, in his prophetic style, “Amalek is the first, the head, the original of the nations; but his latter end shall be, that he perish for ever.” Our commentator observes, that this epithet of the first of nations cannot certainly agree with the Amalekites descended from the son of Eli-phaz, because the generation then living was but the third from Amalek. Besides, Moses never reproaches the Ama-lekites with attacking their brethren the Israelites; an aggravating circumstance which he would not have omitted had the Amalekites been descended from Esau, in which case they would have been the brethren of the Israelites. Lastly, we see the Amalekites almost always classed in Scripture with the Canaanites and the Philistines, and lever with the Edomites; and when Saul made war upon the Amalekites, and almost utterly destroyed them, we do not find that the Edomites made the least attempt to assist them, or to avenge their cause afterwards. Thence it is thought probable that the Amalekites who are so often mentioned in Scripture were a free people descended from Canaan, and devoted to the curse as well as the 3ther Amorites, and very different from the descendants if Amalek, the grandson of Esau.

The accounts which the Arabians give us of the Amalekites destroyed by Saul are as follows: Amalek was the father of an ancient tribe in Arabia, exterminated in the reign of Saul. This tribe contained only the Arabians who are called Pure, the remains whereof were mingled with the posterity of Joktan and Adnan, and so became Mosarabes or Mostaarabes; that is to say, Arabians blend ed with foreign nations. They further believe that Goliath, who was overcome by David, was king of the Amalekites; that the giants who inhabited Palestine in Joshua’s time were of the same race; and that at last part of the Amalekites retired into Africa while Joshua was yet living, and settled upon the coasts of Barbary, along the Mediterranean Sea. The son of Amalek was Ad, a celebrated prince among the Arabians. Some make him the son of Uz, and grandson of Aram the son of Shem. Be this as it may, the Mahometans say that Ad was the father of an Arabian tribe called Ädites, who were exterminated, as they tell us, for not hearkening to the patriarch Eber, who preached to them the unity of God. Ad had two sons, Schedad and Schedid.