AMALECITES (Heb. Amaleq; Vulgate [Septuagint] Amalec and Amalecites). - A nomadic Semitic people, living in the desert zones between the north of Sinai and southern Palestine (Negeb), mentioned in the Bible from the age of Abraham to that of Hezekiah; it does not appear in extra-biblical documents. From the Sinai peninsula, north of Sinai, they bordered to the west on Egypt, to the northeast they reached the territory of the Edomites (southern Palestine), to the east that of the Moabites (from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Elath). Only once is a city of theirs mentioned (I Sam. 15:5). A group of A. seems to have infiltrated peacefully as far as the territory of the tribe of Ephraim, giving its name to the mountain on which stood the city of Pharathon (Judg. 12:15; cf. 5:14), the homeland of Abdon (v.).
In Gen. 36:12, 16, 22, an Amalek son of Eliphaz and grandson of Esau is named as one of the ancestors of the Edomite tribes; but he is not the ancestor of the A., since these existed earlier. Their remote antiquity is noted in Num. 24:20: "the first of the nations is Amalek"; I Kings 27:8: "they dwelt from ancient times (mē-'ōlām) from Shur as far as the land of Egypt." And while the Edomites were to be spared by the Hebrews (cf. Deut. 2:4-8), the A. were subject to the herem (v.), that is, they were devoted to destruction, and war against them was holy (Ex. 17:4, 16; Deut. 25:19; I Sam. 15).
Warlike, the A. appear for the first time at the time of the expedition of Chedorlaomer the Elamite and of three other eastern kings, who "came to En-mishpat, that is, Kadesh, and struck all the territory of the A." (Gen. 14:7). At the time of the exodus from Egypt, at Raphidim (v.), northwest of Sinai, the Hebrews, attacked by hordes of plundering A., defeated them after a bitter battle thanks to the prayer of Moses (Ex. 17:8-16). The following year, when, against Moses' prohibition, the Israelites wished to cross the territory of the A. in order to enter Palestine directly from Kadesh, the A. together with the Canaanites defeated them and pursued them as far as Hormah (Num. 14:40-45).
In the age of the Judges, contingents of A. appear in aid of the Moabites and the Midianites (Judg. 3:13; 6:3-33 and 7:12) in guerrilla warfare against the Israelites. But only in the time of Saul did the Hebrews wage a thorough struggle against these ancient enemies. Saul defeated them with their king Agag (v.) "from Havilah as far as Shur, which is opposite Egypt," destroying them almost completely (I Sam. 15:2-9). David too, first on the commission of the Philistine king Achish (I Sam. 27:8), then to recover the persons who had been carried off (I Sam. 30:1-20), led victorious expeditions against the A. from Ziklag. Finally, in the time of Hezekiah, "five hundred men of the tribe of Simeon went to Mount Seir and struck the remnant of the surviving A.," occupying their territory (I Chron. 4:42). From the 8th century B.C. the A. disappear as a people; their remnants must have merged with the neighboring populations.