The Amelekites, as a people, are first mentioned in Genesis 14:7, when their land was destroyed at the outset of the War of the Kings by Elamite invaders who gathered at Eyn Mishpat (Kadesh), and smote all the region of the Amalekites and Emorim (Amorites). It was this action which drew the kings of the Cities of the Plain into war in the Valley of Sidim.
They were almost certainly an ancient Kena'ani tribe with settlements and land throughout the southern region and east of the Dead Sea and Mount Se'ir. Aboriginal Arabians according to Arabian genealogies.
According to Genesis 36:12, the eponymous tribal patriarch Amalek was a son of Eli-Phaz by his concubine Timna, and as such the grandson of Esav. This statement poses two problems: what was Timna doing being someone's concubine? and how does he get to be a descendant of Esav when we are talking about the time of Esav's own grandfather Av-Rraham? The concubine answer is simple - it means again the sacred marriage, in this case probably for the convenience of a political alliance. The genealogical problem is another example of retrospective veracity: since Amalek later became an Edomite chief, it was necessary to find a place for him in Esav's genealogy, despite the creation of a chronological solipsism. The reference is vital to establish an eponymous ancestor linked to the Beney Yisra-Eli traditions even though it is almost certainly false.
The Amalekites at first inhabited the desert region to the south and east of the Dead Sea, in what later became Edomite territory. Where they went after the Elamite invasion is not stated, but in Exodus 17:8/16 we find them attacking Mosheh at Rephidim, considerably further west into the Sinai desert. This is the story of the miracle of Mosheh's upraised arms gaining the victory, despite some cynically ruthless tactics by the Amalekites - they are alleged to have launched a deliberate assault upon the women and children at the rear of the camp in order to undermine morale: the sort of thing for which a war crimes tribunal would be automatic today. Mosheh's oath of eternal war against Amalek was made at the altar of YHVH-Nisi (יְהוָה נִסִּי), and is echoed in the oracle of the Mo-Avi prophet Bil'am (Balaam), in Numbers 24:20 "First of all nations was Amalek, but his end shall be utter destruction". This oath was almost fulfilled through Sha'ul at Shemu-El's behest (1 Samuel:15).
Numbers 13:29 has them inhabiting the Negev.
Judges 3:13 has them joining with the Beney Amon, and with Eglon king of Mo-Av, to attack Yisra-El in the Vale of Palm Trees.
Judges 12:15 has Avdon ben Hillel the Pirathonite being buried in the land of Ephrayim, in the mountain of the Amalekites. This needs some explaining, especially as it appears to be rather too far north of Amalekite territory to be plausible. The name Avdon (עבדון) comes from the root Eved (עבד), meaning both "a slave" and "a worshipper". This probably means that he was not a trained priest nor a member of the royal family, but merely a devotee of the cult who happened to have risen to the exalted status of Judge. The name Hillel (הלל) is surprising, as it is not generally used as a name until late Rabbinic times. However the liturgy of songs and psalms which accompanied the worship of the mother-goddess was known then, as it still is today, as Hallel (הלל), while the word Ben (בן) has multifarious uses as a means of denoting any form of connection. Thus Avdon Ben Hallel (Hallel rather than Hillel) would simply be a more colourful epithet than the one the original explanation gave: he was a devotee, a regular participant in the service, a man who had come to acquire knowledge of the esoterica, and was therefore promoted beyond his normal station to serve as Judge. His name, as opposed to this explanation of his abnormal elevation, is not given.
Even more interesting, and perhaps a coded explanation of why his name is not given, is his denotion is a Pirathonite (פרעתוני). The four-letter root signifies it is not Yehudit, and there is no other reference to such a place anywhere else in the Tanach. The On (ון) suffix signifies "place of"; the Tav (ת) ending of the root generally signifies a feminine form. This leaves us the triliteral Pera (פרע), which has a variety of meanings, from "to loose" or "let go", but these all stem from an earlier two-letter root minus the Ayin (ע). This leaves either Pharaoh (פרעה), the title of the king of Mitsrayim, and thus perhaps an oblique hint that this man was originally an Egyptian; or Pera (פרע) as in Deuteronomy 32:42 (King James version here; Mechon-Mamre here) and Judges 5:2 (several non-Jewish versions here, and Mechon-Mamre here) where, from the Arabic word meaning a prince or the head of a clan, it is understood to mean "a military commander", and appears as such in most non-Jewish translations, but from the Yehudit root it is understood to mean "long-haired", like Av-Shalom, the son of king David, and appears as such in most jewish translations. Was he then royal, but not Ephrayimite (i.e. not Ben Yisra-El) - an Amalekite indeed, and therefore taken home to Mount Amalek for burial?
On the other hand, of course, as with all these etymological analyses, it might just have been his name!
Click here for more detailed archaeological background to Amalek.
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