The later claim that "Yeshua is God" (or that the God of the Old and New Testaments is the same) makes the problem worse, because the same God who commanded the destruction of Amalekite children is said to be the God who taught love for enemies.
Similar commands against other Canaanite peoples are often grouped with the Amalekite command under the same criticism.
The command was not a general license for Israel to kill whoever they wanted. It was a specific, limited civil and military judgment against one people for a long pattern of hostility.
The Amalekites attacked Israel unprovoked right after the Exodus, striking the weak and weary from behind. Centuries later God still treated that as unfinished business. In the biblical framework this is presented as divine justice against a people who had set themselves in persistent opposition, not as arbitrary cruelty.
The Amalekites were a nomadic people of the southern wilderness and Negev who appear in the Bible as persistent enemies of Israel. Almost everything known about them comes from Biblical text; they are not clearly attested in extra-biblical ancient records.
According to Genesis 36:12, 16, Amalek was the son of Eliphaz (Esau’s son) by the concubine Timna. This makes the Amalekites descendants of Esau and thus related to the Edomites.
They are associated with the desert regions south of Canaan, the Negev, and areas toward Egypt and the Arabah.
Exodus 17:8–16 — Shortly after the Israelites left Egypt (~1250BC), the Amalekites attacked them at Rephidim. Joshua led the fight while Moses held up his hands; Israel prevailed. God then declared ongoing war against Amalek “from generation to generation.”
Deuteronomy 25:17–19 — Moses reminds Israel that Amalek attacked the weak and stragglers (the weary, the sick, women, and children) who lagged behind. Israel is commanded to “blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” once they are settled in the land.
Period of the Judges (~1200-1050BC)— Amalekites joined other groups (Moabites, Midianites) in raids against Israel (Judges 3:13; 6:3, 33).
1 Samuel 15 — God commands King Saul (~1040-1030BC), through Samuel, to attack Amalek and devote them to destruction (men, women, children, infants, and livestock) because of what they did to Israel on the way out of Egypt. Saul defeats them but spares King Agag and the best of the animals. Samuel confronts him; this disobedience is given as a reason Saul loses the kingship. Samuel himself kills Agag.
David’s time (~1010BC) — Amalekites raid Ziklag and carry off captives, including David’s wives (1 Samuel 30). David pursues and defeats them, recovering everything. A remnant escapes.
Later remnant — In the days of Hezekiah (~700BC), men from the tribe of Simeon destroy the remaining Amalekites living in the hill country of Seir (1 Chronicles 4:42–43).
Esther — Haman is called an Agagite (Esther 3:1) (~475BC). Jewish tradition has long identified him as a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag, continuing the old enmity.
The Amalekites are consistently portrayed as raiders who preyed on the vulnerable. Their first attack on Israel targeted those who were exhausted and lagging behind. This pattern of hostility is the stated reason for the later command of total destruction under Saul.
There is no clear archaeological or independent historical confirmation of the Amalekites as a distinct people. References in later Jewish tradition treat them as the archetypal enemy of Israel, but the historical record beyond the biblical accounts is essentially silent.
In short, the Amalekites are known almost entirely through the Biblical story of repeated conflict with Israel, beginning with an attack on the weak during the Exodus and culminating in the commanded destruction under Saul.
The command to Saul was the carrying out of a sentence already stated (Ex 17:14). From the Biblical perspective, the delay itself is often cited as evidence of extreme patience rather than impulsiveness.
Critics often evaluate the command by modern individual-rights standards and treat every death (including women and children) as evidence of moral failure.
The Biblical writers treat the Amalekites as a corporate entity under judgment, and they also record that God is patient, just, and the judge of all. Within that worldview the command is an act of justice long deferred, not an act of cruelty. Whether that framework is accepted is the deeper disagreement.
The command belongs inside a larger story in which the same God both judges and provides a way of escape through Yeshua. In the Old Testament He acts as judge of nations; in the New Testament He offers forgiveness through the death of Yeshua and still warns of future judgment. The character does not change; the covenant stage does.
According to Genesis 36:12, 16, Amalek was the son of Eliphaz (Esau’s son) by the concubine Timna. This makes the Amalekites descendants of Esau and thus related to the Edomites.
[Gen 36:12 LSB] Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Esau’s wife Adah.
[Gen 36:15-16 LSB] These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau, are chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz, [16] chief Korah, chief Gatam, chief Amalek. These are the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Adah.
Exodus 17:8–16 — Shortly after the Israelites left Egypt (~1250BC), the Amalekites attacked them at Rephidim. Joshua led the fight while Moses held up his hands; Israel prevailed. God then declared ongoing war against Amalek “from generation to generation.”
[Exo 17:8-16 LSB] Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. [9] So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will take my stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” [10] And Joshua did as Moses told him, to fight against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. [11] So it happened when Moses raised his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. [12] But Moses’ hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set. [13] So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. [14] Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it in Joshua’s hearing, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” [15] And Moses built an altar and named it Yahweh is My Banner; [16] and he said, “Because He has sworn with a hand upon the throne of Yah, Yahweh will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.”
[Deu 25:17-19 LSB] “Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, [18] how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear, but you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God. [19] “Therefore it will be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.
[Jdg 3:12-13 LSB] Then the sons of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. So Yahweh strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel because they had done what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. [13] And he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of the palm trees.
[Jdg 6:3-4 LSB] And it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would go up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and go up against them. [4] So they would camp against them and ruin the produce of the earth as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.
[Jdg 6:33 LSB] Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the sons of the east assembled themselves; and they crossed over and camped in the valley of Jezreel.
[1Sa 15:1-3 LSB] Then Samuel said to Saul, “Yahweh sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; so now, obey the voice of the words of Yahweh. [2] “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. [3] ‘Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
David’s time (~1010BC) — Amalekites raid Ziklag and carry off captives, including David’s wives (1 Samuel 30). David pursues and defeats them, recovering everything. A remnant escapes.
[1Sa 30:1-2 LSB] Then it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag and had struck Ziklag and burned it with fire; [2] and they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great—they did not put anyone to death—and carried them off and went their way.
[1Ch 4:42-43 LSB] From them, from the sons of Simeon, five hundred men went to Mount Seir, with Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi, as their chiefs. [43] They struck down the remnant of the Amalekites who escaped, and have lived there to this day.
[Est 3:1 LSB] After these things, King Ahasuerus magnified Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.
There is no clear archaeological or independent historical confirmation of the Amalekites as a distinct people. References in later Jewish tradition treat them as the archetypal enemy of Israel, but the historical record beyond the biblical accounts is essentially silent.
In short, the Amalekites are known almost entirely through the Biblical story of repeated conflict with Israel, beginning with an attack on the weak during the Exodus and culminating in the commanded destruction under Saul.
