Genesis 14:7, Those Pesky Amalekites

Posted on Saturday, October 29, 2011 in Bible Commentary | 1 comment

And they returned, and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites.

//You think Israel is the only nation that God resurrected? Here’s a nation that was destroyed four times, and kept coming back to life. In today’s verse, the wording seems to imply that all of the Amalekites were smitten, but apparently it wasn’t so. They were still around a bit later for Saul to destroy again:

1 Samuel 15:20, And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, … and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

This time, the wording is pretty clear. But Saul must have been wrong; it’s not over yet. Next, it’s King David’s turn:

1 Samuel 27:8-9, And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites … And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive.

There! That should do it! Surely this time they’ll stay dead, right? Not so; three chapters later, the Amalekites are still wreaking havoc.

1 Samuel 30:1, And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; So, David goes after them, and in verse 17, he smites them “from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.” Then, 1 Chronicles 4:43 tells what happened to the remnant: “And they smote the rest of the Amalekites that were escaped, and dwelt there unto this day.”

Let’s hope that finally did the trick.