Deuteronomy 25:17-19

On -Amaleḳ

Israel, remembering -Amaleḳ"s impious treatment of their derelicts on the way from Egypt, must, when they rest from their enemies in the land, exterminate -Amaleḳ. In the Sg. address (except for an accidental Pl. in Deuteronomy 25:17) and partly in D's phrasing; but also with phrases from E (Deuteronomy 25:18 f.), and therefore, like so much else in D, based upon E. This is confirmed by another reference to the same behaviour of -Amaleḳ in a passage which otherwise shows affinity to E (1 Samuel 15:2). Further, Israel's attitude to -Amaleḳ under Saul and David, was one of implacable hostility. There is therefore no ground for supposing that this law is a late addition to D (Steuern., Berth., the latter of whom takes it for a piece of haggadah); and it falls in with D's other laws on foreign nations, Deuteronomy 23:3-8.

The reference cannot be to E's description of the pitched battle in Rephidim, in which Joshua discomfited -Amaleḳ (Exodus 17:8-13), nor indeed to any other single contest with that tribe; but is rather to the harassment which Israel suffered throughout the wilderness. Such cruel treatment of the stragglers and derelicts of the host by the wild Arabs of the desert is extremely probable (cp. Doughty, Ar. Des.ii. 153, etc.); and the memory of it would be bitter enough to account for such an early oracle against -Amaleḳ as is quoted by E, Exodus 17:14, and for this law, as well as for the lasting hatred of -Amaleḳ by Israel (enforced as this was by -Amaleḳite raids on Israel after their settlement) and their desire for his extermination. See 1Sa 14:48; 1 Samuel 15:2 f, Deuteronomy 27:8 f., Deuteronomy 28:18 (which regards Saul's fall as due to his not having fully executed God's wrath on -Amaleḳ), Deuteronomy 30:1 f., 2 Samuel 8:12. Such feelings may well have continued after -Amaleḳ"s disappearance from the history of Israel; D's restatement of them is on a level with the command to exterminate the Canaanites and other peoples of the land.