Place · Region
Amalek
Named in 18 verses across 6 books, first in Exodus 17:8.
In the Bible
All 18 verses, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Exodus
- Exodus 17:8
After this, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.
- Exodus 17:9
So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop with the staff of God in my hand.”
- Exodus 17:10
Joshua did as Moses had instructed him and fought against the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
- Exodus 17:11
As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he lowered them, Amalek prevailed.
- Exodus 17:13
So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his army with the sword.
- Exodus 17:14
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua, because I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
- Exodus 17:16
“Indeed,” he said, “a hand was lifted up toward the throne of the LORD. The LORD will war against Amalek from generation to generation.”
Numbers
- Numbers 24:20
Then Balaam saw Amalek and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Amalek was first among the nations, but his end is destruction.”
Deuteronomy
- Deuteronomy 25:17
Remember what the Amalekites did to you along your way from Egypt,
- Deuteronomy 25:19
When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
1 Samuel
- 1 Samuel 15:2
This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they ambushed them on their way up from Egypt.
- 1 Samuel 15:3
Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
- 1 Samuel 15:5
Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.
- 1 Samuel 15:8
He captured Agag king of Amalek alive, but devoted all the others to destruction with the sword.
- 1 Samuel 15:20
“But I did obey the LORD,” Saul replied. “I went on the mission that the LORD gave me. I brought back Agag king of Amalek and devoted the Amalekites to destruction.
- 1 Samuel 28:18
Because you did not obey the LORD or carry out His burning anger against Amalek, the LORD has done this to you today.
2 Samuel
- 2 Samuel 8:12
from Edom and Moab, from the Ammonites and Philistines and Amalekites, and from the spoil of Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah.
1 Chronicles
- 1 Chronicles 18:11
and King David dedicated these to the LORD, along with the silver and gold he had carried off from all these nations—from Edom and Moab, and from the Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalekites.
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. Its geography and “modern” descriptions date from the 1890s. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
A tribe that dwelt in Arabia Petraea, between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. They were not the descendants of Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, for they existed in the days of Abraham (Gen. 14:7). They were probably a tribe that migrated from the shores of the Persian Gulf and settled in Arabia. “They dwelt in the land of the south...from Havilah until thou comest to Shur” (Num. 13:29; 1 Sam. 15:7). They were a pastoral, and hence a nomadic race. Their kings bore the hereditary name of Agag (Num. 24:7; 1 Sam. 15:8). They attempted to stop the Israelites when they marched through their territory (Deut. 25:18), attacking them at Rephidim (Ex. 17:8-13; comp. Deut. 25:17; 1 Sam. 15:2). They afterwards attacked the Israelites at Hormah (Num. 14:45). We read of them subsequently as in league with the Moabites (Judg. 3:13) and the Midianites (Judg. 6:3). Saul finally desolated their territory and destroyed their power (1 Sam. 14:48; 15:3), and David recovered booty from them (1 Sam. 30:18-20). In the Babylonian inscriptions they are called Sute, in those of Egypt Sittiu, and the Amarna tablets include them under the general name of Khabbati, or “plunderers.”