Introduction
Amalek is a son of Eliphaz (Esau's son) and Timna, and thus a grandson of Esau, named in Genesis 36:12 as one of the Edomite chiefs descended from Esau. He is understood as the ancestral, eponymous figure of the Amalekites, a people who become one of Israel's most persistent and, in the biblical narrative's own moral framing, most condemned adversaries in the later books of the Torah and historical writings.
Family
- Father: Eliphaz
Birth
Genesis 36:12 records Amalek's birth to Eliphaz and Timna, described as Eliphaz's concubine, making Amalek's status within the Edomite genealogy somewhat set apart from Eliphaz's other, presumably legitimate, sons, though the text lists him alongside them as a chief of Edom without further comment on this distinction.
The Amalekites in later books
While Genesis itself gives Amalek only this brief genealogical mention, the Amalekites he is understood to have fathered become significant recurring adversaries later in the Torah: they attack Israel during the wilderness wandering in Exodus 17, leading to a divine decree of lasting hostility, and instructions to "blot out the remembrance of Amalek" appear in Deuteronomy 25, a command later narratively connected to King Saul's campaign against the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15.