Amalek
[5] Most scholars regard the origin of the term, "Amalek" to be unknown[6] but in some rabbinical interpretations, it is etymologized as am lak, 'a people who lick (blood)'.
[7] Richard C. Steiner has suggested that the name is derived from the Egyptian term *ꜥꜣm rqj "hostile Asiatic", possibly referring to Shasu tribesmen from around Edom.
[14] One modern scholar believes this attests to Amalek's high antiquity,[15] while traditional commentator Rashi states: "He came before all of them to make war with Israel".
[52] According to Haggahot Maimuniyyot, the commandment only applies to the future messianic era and not in present times; this limitation is widely supported by medieval authorities.
There is however, one obscure prophecy that states that all nations will eventually worship God alone, which raises the question of how can there possibly be a third temple when Amalek is wiped out.
[60] Nathan Lopes Cardazo argues that the Torah's ethically questionable laws were intentional since they were a result of God working with an underdeveloped world.
[61] Theologian Charles Ellicott explains that the Amalekites were subject to cherem in the Book of Samuel for the purposes of incapacitation, due to their 'accursed' nature and the threat they posed to the commonwealth of surrounding nations.
[64] Paul Copan argues that the cherem commands were hyperbolic since the passages contain merisms such as "man and woman"[65] and Near Easterners valued "bravado and exaggeration" when reporting warfare.
[39] Ibn Khaldūn believed that God ordered Saul, the king of Israel, to depose the Amalekites, which caused Haman's hostility to the Jews in the Book of Esther.
However, she notes that the Hebrew Bible is surprisingly neutral when describing the Amalekites and that the texts do not provide an adequate explanation on why they were singled out for complete annihilation, compared to the Egyptians and Canaanites for example.
[76] C. L. Crouch considers the cherem commands to be an exceptional component to Israelite and Judahite warfare since they were erratically applied, even in the early stages of national and ethnic identity formation.
[80] If this hypothesis is correct, it is likely that Saul's anti-Amalekite campaigns were motivated by a strategic desire to wrest control of copper production at Tel Masos.
[81] Archaeological evidence from the Tell el-Qudeirat fortress and Horvat Haluqim in the Negev, dated to the late 11th to early 10th century BC, could corroborate with the Biblical Israelite-Amalekite confrontations, during the reigns of Saul and David.
[85] However, the modern biblical scholar Gerald L. Mattingly uses textual analysis to glean that the use of Amalekite in Genesis 14:7 is actually an anachronism,[4] and in the early 19th century, Richard Watson enumerated several speculative reasons for the existence of a "more ancient Amalek" than Abraham.
[88] Nur Masalha, Elliot Horowitz, and Josef Stern suggest that the Amalekites represent an "eternally irreconciliable enemy" that wants to murder Jews.
[89] Groups identified with Amalek include the Romans, Nazis, Stalinists, ISIS,[90] and bellicose Iranian leaders such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
[91][92] More metaphorically, to some Hasidic rabbis (particularly the Baal Shem Tov), Amalek represents atheism or the cynical rejection of God, which leads to unethical hedonism.
[93] During the Purim festival, the Book of Esther is read in commemoration of the salvation of Jewish people from Haman, who plotted to kill all Jews in Persian Empire.
[99] Professor Philip Jenkins notes that Christian extremists have historically labelled enemies such as Native Americans, Protestants, Catholics and Tutsis as Amalekites to justify their genocides.
Because of this, modern Christian scholars have re-examined the Biblical narratives that inspired these atrocities using philology, literary analysis, archaeology and historical evidence.
[101] Adam J. Silverstein observes that most of the medieval Muslim world ignored the Book of Esther or modified its details, despite their familiarity with the Persian Jewish community.
This was caused by their attempt to reconcile the Biblical Esther with the Quranic Haman, who was the antagonist of the Exodus narrative, and Persian mythological historical traditions.
[105] During the 2023–24 Israel–Hamas war (beginning in October 2023), Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Israeli government was "committed to completely eliminating this evil from the world", and he also stated: "You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible.
Netanyahu denied that was his intention, stating the South African accusation reflected a "deep historical ignorance" since he was referring to Hamas, not Palestinians as a whole.
