AMALEKITES, an ancient tribe, or collection of tribes, be longing to the Bedouin type, familiar from their relations to Israel. Though Hebrew ethnology made them a subordinate branch of Edom (Gen.xxxvi.12), and (if the text of Judges v.14 and xii.15 be correct) even connected them closely with the tribe of Eph raim, they are uniformly represented as enemies of Israel. Thus they harried the fugitives as they escaped from Egypt at the Exodus (Deut.xxv.17-19), were included among the foes through whom a passage must be forced into southern Palestine from Kadesh (Num. xiv. 43-45), attacked Israel at Rephidim, where they were utterly defeated by Joshua (Exod. xvii. 8-16), were doomed to ultimate destruction by Balaam (Num. xxiv. 20), formed part of the coalition which Eglon, king of Moab, used to oppress Israel (Judges iii. 13), were included among the hordes of Bedouin raiders defeated by Gideon (Judges vi. 3,33), were condemned to annihilation—put to the "herem"—by Saul (I. Sam. xv.), though the king incurred the anger of Yahweh by sparing Agag and the cattle ; and yet enough of them survived to raid Ziklag in David's absence and to be overwhelmed by his venge ance (I. Sam. xxx.). It is not surprising to find them described as "enemies of Yahweh" (I. Sam. xxx. 26), and the objects of a perpetual "Jihad," or sacred war (Deut. xxv. 19, Ex. xvii. 16).
The district over which Amalek ranged lay to the south of Judah, probably between Kadesh and Hormah, though they may at times have been located further east ; and the interchange of the ethnic with "Canaanites" and "Amorites" suggests that the Amalekites were merely one of Israel's traditional enemies of the older period. Even in one of the Psalms (lxxxiii. 7) Amalek is mentioned among the foes of Israel, and the same feeling is reflected still later in the book of Esther, where Haman the Agagite is pitted against Mordecai the Benjamite. The name of Amalek is celebrated in Arabian tradition, but the confused and conflicting stories are, for historical purposes, practically worthless.