(3) Attacked by David. About twenty years later they were attacked by David during his resi dence among the Philistines (I Sam. xxvii :8). It is said that he smote the land and left neither man nor woman alive ;' this language must be taken with some limitation, for shortly after the Amalekites were sufficiently recovered from their defeat to make reprisals, and burnt Ziklag with fire ( I Sam. xxx). David, on his return from the camp of Achish, surprised them while cele brating their success, 'eating, and drinking, and dancing,' and 'smote them from twilight even unto the evening of the next day, and there escaped not a man of them, save .too young men which rode upon camels, and fled' (I Sam. xxx: 17). At a later period we find that David dedi cated to the Lord the silver and gold of Amalek and other conquered nations (2 Sam. viii The last notice of the Amalekitcs as a nation is in t Citron. iv:43, from which we learn that in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, soo men of the sons of Simeon 'went to Mount Scir, and smote the rest of the Amalekites that were es caped.' In the book of Esther. Haman is called the Agagite, and was probably a descendant of the royal line (Num. xxiv :7; I Sam. xv :8). Jo sephus says that he was by birth an Amalekite (Anfiq. xi :6, Sec. 5).
(4) Three Tribes. The editor of Calmet sup poses that there were no less than three dis tinct tribes of Amalekites: t. Amalek the an cient, referred to in Gen. xiv ; 2. A tribe in the region cast of Egypt, between Egypt and Ca naan (Exod. xvii :8 ; I Sam. xv. etc.) ; 3. Amalek, the descendants of Eliphaz. No such distinc
tion, however, appears to be made in the biblical narrative ; the national character is everywhere the same, and the different localities in which we find the Amalekites may be easily explained by their habits, which evidently were such as belong to a warlike nomade people.
(5) Territory. The territory proper of the Amalekites was bounded by Philistia, Egypt, blumtca and the desert of Sinai. This is evident from the scriptural notices of their location south of Palestine (Num. xiii :29). in the re gion traversed by the Israelites (Exod. xvii :8), and their connection with the Ammonites 1 Judg.
:1,3), the Midianites ( Judg. vi :3 ; the Kenites (t Sam. xv :6), as well as their near proximity to the Philistines (t Sam. xxvii :8), and the town of Shur or Pclusium (I Sam. xv :7).
"Outside of the Old Testament we have no re liable accounts of the Arnaleknes. In the works of the Arabian historians very extensive and de tailed reports are given of the progress and achievements of the Amalekites, but these, as NOldeke has convincingly shown, are credible only in so far as they are based on the statements of the historical books of our own canonical Scrip tures." (J. Macpherson, Hastings' Bib. Dirt.) AMAM (ii'marn). (I lett. am-awne. gather ing place), a city near Shema and Nloladah in the southern part of the tribe of Judah I Josh. xv:26), perhaps situated in the tract afterwards assigned Simeon (josh. xix:1-oh.
AMAN (a'man) The Gr;ecized form of the name of Haman (Tub. Esdr. x :7; xii:6; xiii: 1. 12; xiv:17; xvi:to, 17)