A member of an ancient nomadic people who lived in the Arabian Peninsula and were described in biblical texts as enemies of the Israelites.
From Hebrew Amalek, the name of a biblical people descended from Esau, combined with the suffix -ite (meaning 'member of a group'). The name appears in ancient Near Eastern texts and biblical accounts dating back to the 12th-11th centuries BCE.
The Amalekites were so famously fierce that they appear repeatedly in the Bible as a symbol of inevitable opposition—and their very name became a code word in Jewish tradition for existential enemies. It's fascinating how a real ancient warrior culture got transformed into an almost mythological archetype.
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