AMALEKITES (Heb. 'Amalēqī'; Vulgate [with the Septuagint] Amalec and Amalecites). - A nomadic, semi-Chamic people dwelling in the desert regions between the northern Sinai and southern Palestine (Negeb), mentioned in the Bible from the time of Abraham to that of Hezekiah; they do not appear in extrabiblical documents. From the Sinai peninsula, north of the Sinai, they bordered Egypt to the west, reached the territory of the Edomites (southern Palestine) to the northeast, and the Moabites (from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Elanitic) to the east. Only once is mention made of one of their cities (1 Sam. 15:5). A group of A. seems to have peacefully infiltrated the territory of the tribe of Ephraim, giving their name to the mountain on which stood the city of Pharaon (Judg. 12:15; cf. 5:14), Abdon (v.).
In Gen. 36:12, 16, 22, an 'Amalēq, son of Eliphaz and grandson of Esau, is named as one of the progenitors of the Edomite tribes; but he is not the ancestor of the A., since they existed earlier. Their remote antiquity is noted in Num. 24:20: “Amalek was the first of the nations”; 1 Kings 27:8: “they had dwelt from of old (mē-ōlām) from Shur as far as the land of Egypt.” While the Edomites were to be spared by the Hebrews (cf. Deut. 2:4-8), the A. were subject to the ban (herem) (v.), that is, they were doomed to destruction and war against them was holy (Ex. 17:8-16; Deut. 25:19; 1 Sam. 15).
Warlike, the A. first appear at the time of the expedition of Chedorlaomer the Elamite and three other eastern kings, who “came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh) and defeated all the country of the A.” (Gen. 14:7). At the time of the Exodus from Egypt, at Rephidim (v.), northwest of the Sinai, the Hebrews, attacked by bands of marauding A., defeated them after a hard battle through the prayer of Moses (Ex. 17:8-16). The following year, when, against Moses’ prohibition, the Israelites sought to pass through the territory of the A. 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 period of the Judges, contingents of A. appear aiding the Moabites and Midianites (Judg. 3:13; 6:3-33 and 7:12) in guerrilla warfare against the Israelites. But it was only in the time of Saul that the Hebrews waged a determined campaign against these ancient enemies. Saul Agag (v.) “from Havilah as far as Shur in front of Egypt,” nearly annihilating them (1 Sam. 15:2-9). David, too, first by order of the Philistine king Achish (1 Sam. 27:8), then to recover captured persons (1 Sam. 30:1-20), led victorious expeditions from Ziklag against the A. 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., taking possession of their territory” (1 Chron. 4:42). From the 8th century B.C. the A. disappear as a people; their remnants must have merged with neighboring populations.