61 myths · Page 1 of 3
Myths, legends, and mystical writings about Amalek from across Jewish tradition.
61 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines amalek, drawn from the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, Talmud, Kabbalah, and later Jewish literature. Each story below synthesizes primary sources into a single narrative; follow any myth to read it, and from there into the source passages behind it.
Moses, Aaron, and Hur climb a hill above the battle with Amalek, and the names they carry up are not the living but the dead.
Saul kept King Agag alive a single night instead of killing him in battle, and from that night Amalek lived on to threaten every Jew in Persia.
Eliphaz asked his son who would own this world and the next, then let it drop when the boy ignored him. The boy's name was Amalek.
The kings of the earth asked Balaam whether another flood was coming. He told them no, and every one of them went home relieved.
Eldad and Medad prophesied in the camp that Moses would die and Joshua would replace him. Joshua had two words for that: imprison them.
Three men advised Pharaoh about the Hebrews. One was thrown out for defending them, one said nothing useful, and one of them thought of the river.
Israel would not ask God out loud whether He was still with them. They held the question in their hearts and waited to see if He knew.
Before attacking Amalek, Saul asked God what wrong the children had done. A voice answered: do not be overjust. He ignored the warning and it destroyed him.
At the Golden Calf the Levites would come forward with swords. Judah's banner would lead every march. Neither had happened yet when Moses' arms went up.
Israel crossed the sea, watched Egypt drown, and sang. Then they asked whether God was really among them. Amalek came the next moment.
Saul had orders to destroy Amalek completely. His first act was to warn the Kenites to leave. Jethro's old kindness to Moses still carried weight.
Samuel prays through the night, and the prayer strikes before the sword does. Agag lives one day too long and fathers the line that will become Haman.
Amalek came from the far south and covered sixteen hundred miles in a single night, driven by a grudge that ran back to Esau and Jacob in the womb.
Her father died before he could teach her much. What he did teach her was one promise God made through Moses, and she held God to it on the floor.
Joseph rises in Egypt and needs his father's arrival to silence whispers. Moses kills with the Name, Amalek attacks, and Korah opens the earth.
After Rephidim, Moses names shared trouble at the altar while God swears the divine name and throne stay incomplete until Amalek is erased.
Peninnah came in every morning to ask whether Hannah was washing her children's faces. Hannah went into the shrine at Shiloh with a threat.
Amalek cut the sign of the covenant from the dead and flung it at the sky. The wars over that covenant began long before, with Jacob's sons.
A princess of royal blood begged to join the covenant of Abraham, was turned from the door, and from that wound she bore Amalek.
Three months out of Egypt, Israel found water the cattle refused. Doubt opened the door, and Amalek walked through it with swords.
After six failed months, Joab had himself slung into the Amalekite capital, then sent blood through the gates so Israel could shout the Shema (Hear O Israel).
Every Hebrew had marked his name on the bricks of forced labor. Amalek got hold of those lists. Outside the camp he called out: Reuben. Simeon. Levi.
The king of Africa would not accept the loss. Agnias drafted every male in his land, boys of ten included, and seized the property of anyone who refused.
Amalek reached Rephidim with no herald and no demand. Moses climbed the hill and argued the case to God with the staff that had split the sea.
Moses could not hold his own arms in the air. They put a rock under him, and what took his weight was the deeds of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the mothers.
At Refidim, Amalek struck and Moses promised the hill. One sage heard tactics; another heard Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob fighting in the staff.
Amalek skipped five nations and rode four hundred parasangs to strike Israel. Moses' hands grew heavy as water jugs while God warred by His Name alone.
Pharaoh's officers would not chase runaway brickmakers for nothing. He threw open the treasure houses and promised every man an equal share.
The coastal road was shorter. Along it lay Philistine war and Ephraimite bones. God took the people the long way so they would not turn back.
Samuel said wait seven days. On the seventh the army was leaking away into the hills, and Saul called for the fire himself.
