Page 82 - BV20

82 The Amalekites of the Bible!

While it is true Amalek’s name des ig nated his tribal de scen dants, there is a be lief that
Amalek dates back BEYOND the time of Esau; and this is backed up by the ac count of
Chedorlaomer and the kings in Gen e sis 14:

In the four teenth year Chadorlaomer and the kings that were with him came and at tacked the
Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and the
Horites in their moun tain of Seir, as far as El Paran, which is by the wil der ness.

Then they turned back and came to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and ATTACKED ALL
THE COUNTRIES OF THE AMALEKITES, and also the Amorites who dwelt in Hazezon
Tamar. -- Verse 5-7.

When Balaam “took up his or a cle” and “looked on AMALEK” (Num bers 24:1-2, 20) he
said: “AMALEK WAS THE FIRST AMONG NATIONS, but shall be last un til he per ishes.”
When the chil dren of Is rael met the Amalekites at Rephidim, the Amalekites were al ready “first
among the na tions” of Ara bia, and were des tined to go on to even GREATER prom i nence.

The Is lamic his to ri ans con sider Amalek to be one of the MOST ANCIENT of the Arab
tribes. Abulfeda, an Arab scholar of the thir teenth cen tury, wrote:

Shem [son of Noah] has sev eral sons, among them Laud, to whom was born Pharis,
Djordjan, Tasm, and AMALEK....

According to Immanuel Velikovsky:

The Amalekites RULED IN MECCA and from their CENTRAL POSITION on the great
pen in sula [of Ara bia] DOMINATED other Ara bian tribes. All parts of Ara bia Fe lix, Ara bia
Petraea, and Ara bia Deserta alike were within reach of their bows. -- Ages in Chaos,
Doubleday & Com pany, Inc. Gar den City, N.Y. 1952. P.61.

Sir Rich ard F. Bur ton, fa mous Brit ish ex plorer and au thor of the nine teenth cen tury, noted
the fol low ing in his book Per sonal Nar ra tive of a Pil grim age to Al-Madinah and Meccah:

A tribe called Aulad Sam bin Nuh (the chil dren of Shem), or Amalikah and Amalik, from
their an ces tor Amlak bin Arfakhshad bin Sam bin Nuh, was in spired with a knowl edge of
the Arabic tongue: it SETTLED AT AL-MADINAH [Me dina], and was the first to cul ti vate
the ground and to PLANT PALM-TREES. In course of time these peo ple ex tended over the
whole tract BETWEEN THE SEAS OF AL-HIJAZ (THE GULF OF AQABAH) AND
AL-OMAN, (NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE INDIAN OCEAN), and they be came
the PROGENITORS of the Jababirah (ty rants or “gi ants”) of Syria, as well as the
FARAINAH (PHARAOHS) OF EGYPT....The last king of the Amalik, “Arkam bin
al-Arkam,” was, ac cord ing to most au thors, slain by an army of the chil dren of Is rael sent by
Mo ses af ter the Ex o dus, with or ders thor oughly to purge Meccah and al-Madinah of their
In fi del in hab it ants. -- Vol. I, p. 343.

The Berean Voice