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==Origin==
==Origin==
Like other tribes such as the [[Edomites]], the Amalekites were named after a man, Amalek, from whom they were believed to be descended. However, they are more likely associated with the Ammonites and Canaanites. Their name is sometimes translated as "people of the valleys," but some biblical scholars do not agree with this translation.<ref>M. Weippert, Semitische Nomaden des zweiten Jahrtausends. Biblica vol. 55, 1974, 265-280, 427-433</ref>
Like other tribes such as the [[Edomites]], the Amalekites were named after a man, Amalek, from whom they were believed to be descended. However, they are more likely associated with the Ammonites and Canaanites. Their name is sometimes translated as "people of the valleys," but some biblical scholars do not agree with this translation.<ref>M. Weippert, Semitische Nomaden des zweiten Jahrtausends. Biblica vol. 55, 1974, 265-280, 427-433</ref>
=== The Agag Incident ===
On or about 1079 BC (or 1034 BC according to Thiele), [[Samuel]] passed along to Saul God's direct order to do battle against the Amalekites and destroy them to the last man, woman, child, and item of livestock. Saul disobeyed ''again.'' He offered [[Agag]], king of the Amalekites, terms of surrender, and preserved intact much livestock and other booty.<ref name=GeoCities/>
Now Samuel told Saul definitely that God now rejected him. Saul made a show of repentance, and Samuel accepted it for the moment--but he took care to execute Agag personally. Then Samuel departed from Saul's presence. The two men never saw one another again.<ref name=GeoCities/><ref name=Spiro/><ref name=Catholic/> (And neither would either man ever know the magnitude of Saul's original error: Agag sired a son before Samuel executed him, and a later descendant of that son, named [[Haman]], would threaten death to the entire Jewish nation under a [[Persia]]n king whom he served as [[vizier]].<ref name=Spiro/>)