Amalekites
Updated 2024-07-15
Amalek’s Attack The Defeat of Amalek While the Jews were still in Rephidim, the Amalekites, a mightily and fierce people, descendants of Esau, and well-trained in the art of warfare, suddenly attacked the people of Israel. It was an unprovoked and cowardly attack upon a tired and weary people, just liberated from slavery, on the way to their homeland.
Moses put his disciple Joshua in charge of the troops who were to fight against the Amalekites. Then Moses, together with his brother Aaron and nephew Hur, went up to a hill, to pray for G‑d’s help in the battle. The battle lasted a whole day until the Amalekites were finally defeated and routed. G‑d ordered Moses to record the treacherous attack of the Amalekites for everlasting memory. Together with this memory went an oath to wipe the Amalekites — the incarnation of all evil — off the face of the earth. There could be no peace between Israel and Amalek for all time to come. https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/246634/jewish/Amaleks-Attack.htm
Amalek -Wikipedia Commandment to exterminate the Amalekites Commandments
In Judaism, three of the 613 mitzvot (commandments) involve Amalek: to remember what the Amalekites did to the Israelites, not to forget what the Amalekites did to Israelites, and to destroy the Amalekites utterly. The rabbis derived these from Deuteronomy 25:17–18, Exodus 17:14 and 1 Samuel 15:3. Rashi explains the third commandment:
From man unto woman, from infant unto suckling, from ox unto sheep, so that the name of Amalek not be mentioned even with reference to an animal by saying “This animal belonged to Amalek”.
As enumerated by Maimonides, the three mitzvot state:
598 Deut. 25:17 – Remember what Amalek did to the Israelites
599 Deut. 25:19 – Wipe out the descendants of Amalek
600 Deut. 25:19 – Not to forget Amalek’s atrocities and ambush on our journey from Egypt in the desert
Some commentators have discussed the ethical deficiency of the commandment to exterminate all the Amalekites, especially including the command to kill children, and the presumption of collective punishment. It has also been described as genocidal, according to genocide scholars like Norman Naimark.
As a people, the Amalekites were identified as a recurrent enemy of the Israelites. This role appears in several stories:
In Exodus 17:8–16, Amalek makes war against Israel in the wilderness. Joshua is ordered by Moses to lead Israel in battle, and Moses watches from a hillside. When Moses’ hand is raised, Israel prevails, but when it is lowered, Israel falters. So he keeps his hand raised through the entire battle, even having assistants hold him up, so that the battle will go to Israel.
In Deuteronomy 25:17–19, The Israelites are specifically commanded to “blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” once they have taken possession of the promised land in retribution for “what Amalek did to [them] on the way as [they] were coming out of Egypt.” Earlier, in Deuteronomy 7:1–16 and Deuteronomy 25:16–18, they are commanded to utterly destroy all the inhabitants of the idolatrous cities in the promised land and their livestock; scripture purports that King Saul ultimately loses favor with Yahweh for failing to kill King Agag and the best livestock of the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15 in defiance of these commandments.
In 1 Samuel 15:1–9, Samuel identifies Amalek as the enemy of Israelites, saying “Thus says the Lord of hosts: I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt.” God then commands Saul to destroy the Amalekites. In 1 Samuel 15:33, Samuel identifies king Agag of Amalek as an enemy and killer, saying “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.”
According to 1 Samuel 30:1–2, the Amalekites invaded the Negev and Ziklag in the Judean/Philistine border area towards the end of the reign of King Saul, burning Ziklag and taking its citizens away into captivity. The future king David led a successful mission against the Amalekites to recover “all that the Amalekites had carried away”.
In 2 Samuel 1:5–10, an Amalekite tells David that he found Saul leaning on his spear after the battle of Gilboa. The Amalekite claims he euthanized Saul, at Saul’s request, and removed his crown. David gives orders to his men to kill the Amalekite for killing the anointed king, believing him to be guilty by admission. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalek
2024-04-09 Sympathy for the Devil, Part Two “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.” – Benjamin Netanyahu
In the Book of Samuel, it is Samuel who oversees the transfer of religious authority from the Judges to the Kings—at the insistence of the people, not the command of God. And it is to Saul, the first Hebrew King, that Samuel, claiming to be speaking on behalf of God, commands Saul to kill every person in Amalek, a rival nation to ancient Israel.
“This is what the Lord Almighty says,” Samuel tells Saul. “‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
This is the biblical reference which Benjamin Netanyahu drew upon when he exhorted Israel to “remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible.” https://scottritter.substack.com/p/sympathy-for-the-devil-part-two
2023-11-03 The Dangerous History Behind Netanyahu’s Amalek Rhetoric His recent biblical reference has long been used by the Israeli far right to justify killing Palestinians. On Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israelis were united in their fight against Hamas, whom he described as an enemy of incomparable cruelty. “They are committed to completely eliminating this evil from the world,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew. He then added: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.”
There are more than 23,000 verses in the Old Testament. The ones Netanyahu turned to, as Israeli forces launched their ground invasion in Gaza, are among its most violent—and have a long history of being used by Jews on the far right to justify killing Palestinians.
As others quickly pointed out, God commands King Saul in the first Book of Samuel to kill every person in Amalek, a rival nation to ancient Israel. “This is what the Lord Almighty says,” the prophet Samuel tells Saul. “‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/benjamin-netanyahu-amalek-israel-palestine-gaza-saul-samuel-old-testament/
2023-10-30 Netanyahu Accused of ‘Genocidal Intentions’ in Gaza After ‘Holy Mission’ Speech “The biblical reference to Amalek is genocidal,” noted one theologian after the prime minister invoked an ancient enemy. “The Bible commands to wipe out Amalek, including women, babies, children, and animals.” Human rights defenders on Monday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of an “explicit call to genocide” after he delivered a televised address calling Israel’s imminent invasion of Gaza a “holy mission” and invoked an ancient mythical foe whom the God of the Hebrew Bible commanded the Israelites to exterminate. Declaring the start of a “second stage” of Israel’s war on Gaza—which he described as a “holy mission”—Netanyahu said that “you must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible.” According to the Hebrew Bible, the nation of Amalek was an ancient archenemy of the Israelites whose extermination was commanded by God to Saul via the prophet Samuel. https://www.commondreams.org/news/netanyahu-genocide
The Amalekites, eternal enemies of the Jewish people, are said to be the embodiment of pure evil. Just as the Nazis were the 20th century’s version of Amalek, Hamas has proven that they are the Amalek of today. I see the words “Do not forget” as an admonition to minimize the chances that this nightmare will happen again. Learn from military intelligence mistakes, don’t trust in the humanity of enemies who have none, and always remain vigilant.
At this stage, I doubt that many of us need be reminded of what Hamas did to our people. And I suspect that we agree on what we need to do in return. If we ever hope to live in peace alongside our Palestinian neighbors, Hamas, like Amalek, must be removed from the world. https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/columnist/364360/hamas-todays-amalek/
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