Return Sevenfold to Our Neighbors and the Fall of Agag

"And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom" (Psalms 79:12). Rabbi Yudah bar Guria said: Let Him remember on their behalf what they did to us regarding the covenant of circumcision, which was given into the bosom of Abraham. This agrees with what Rabbi Hanina bar Shalka, Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin, and Rabbi Levi said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan: What did the house of Amalek do? They would cut off the marks of circumcision of Israel and fling them upward, saying, "You chose this; here is what You chose." And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Let Him remember on their behalf what they did to us regarding the Torah, of which it is written, "refined sevenfold" (Psalms 12:7); so shall You return to them recompense sevenfold into their bosom. And the Rabbis said: Let Him remember on their behalf what they did to us regarding the Sanctuary, which is set in the bosom of the world, as Rav Huna said, "And from the bottom upon the ground to the lower ledge shall be two cubits" (Ezekiel 43:14). And Samuel came and exacted the punishment from them: "And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal" (1 Samuel 15:33). What did he do to him? Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: He cut from his flesh olive-sized pieces and fed them to the ostriches, as it is written, "It shall devour the limbs of his body, the firstborn of death shall devour his limbs" (Job 18:13); he chose for him a bitter death. And the Rabbis said: He set up four stakes and stretched him over them, and Agag was saying, "Surely the bitterness of death is at hand" (1 Samuel 15:32); so are the princes put to death by harsh deaths. Rabbi Shmuel bar Avidmi said: He judged him by the law of the nations of the world, without witnesses and without warning. Rabbi Yitzhak said: He castrated him, "And Samuel said, As your sword has bereaved women, so shall your mother be bereaved among women" (1 Samuel 15:33) — meaning the mother of that man. Rabbi Levi said: Moses too hinted of it to Israel from the Torah: "When men strive together, one and his brother... then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall not pity" (Deuteronomy 25:11-12). What is written immediately after? "Remember what Amalek did to you" (Deuteronomy 25:17).