When Benjamin Netanyahu announced the launch of ground operations in Gaza on October 28, weeks after Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 civilians and kidnapped 240 hostages on October 7, he recalled the memory of a former enemy.
‘Remember what Amalek did to you,’ Israeli PM says declared. “We remember and we fight.”
It was a reference his audience would understand.
In the Exodus story, the Amalekites attack the Hebrew people in the desert and are defeated in a dramatic conflict in which Moses raises his arms on the battlefield. Later, in Deuteronomy 25:17-19, Moses exhorts the Israelites to “remember what the Amalekites did to you” and, after coming into possession of the Promised Land, to “blot out the name of Amalek under the sky “. Finally, in 1 Samuel 15, God commanded King Saul to “utterly destroy” the Amalekites, including women, children, and infants. Saul defeats the enemy, but is condemned for sparing his king and his cattle.
Rabbinic commentaries have come to identify Amalek as a sort of paradigm for any enemy of the Jews who seeks their total destruction. Netanyahu had already suggests the “new Amalek” could be a nuclear-armed Iran, and one of its advisers explain the word is used to replace “existential threat”. It has been invoked in reference to the Romans, the Nazis and the Soviets.
Christians, however, made the biblical comparison to Hamas even before Netanyahu, sparking discussions about responsible biblical interpretation in the midst of war.
Shortly after October 7, the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ) said Hamas’ attack was “rooted in the demonic realm as a manifestation of the Spirit of Amalek.” The ICEJ invited Christians around the world to “rise to our spiritual perspective and join in this battle, just as Moses prayed while Joshua fought Amalek on the field.”
Some Messianic Jewish leaders agreed.
“In every generation the hatred of Amalek arises with the aim of annihilating the Israelites,” said Ariel Rudolph, director of operations at the Jerusalem seminary, citing Exodus 17:16. “Once one understands the spirit of hatred towards God’s elect, which comes from Satan, we understand that the evil of hatred must be eradicated.”
Rudolph criticized Christians who call for mercy on Hamas and salvation for terrorists because they do not recognize the biblical principle of eliminating any threat that could annihilate the people of Israel.
Other Messianic Jewish leaders are more contradictory.
“On the one hand, something has to be done to prevent Hamas from repeating something like what happened on October 7,” said Ray Pritz, retired pastor of a Messianic Jewish congregation located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. “But on the other hand, the widespread loss of life in Gaza is sad beyond words. »
Holding a doctorate in early Jewish Christianity from the Hebrew University, Pritz has clearly criticized Hamas’ equation with Amalek. “Whoever makes the connection has to rely heavily on interpretation,” he said. “With a preconceived idea and a concordance, it is possible to prove almost anything one wants about the Bible. »
The text does not say that Amalek sought to “annihilate” Israel, he said. But even assuming this, the conditions of the Book of Exodus are not applicable today. By “the promise of God or otherwise,” the people are in the land. And despite Hamas’s intentions, Pritz said, there is “zero probability” that the Jewish nation — much less the Jewish people as a whole — will be eliminated.
Noam Hendren, however, stated that the Bible presents Amalek as an “archetypal enemy”, representing all those who seek the destruction of God’s people.
The leader of a Messianic Jewish congregation in north-central Israel, Hendren holds a ThM in Old Testament and Semitics from Dallas Theological Seminary. The “from generation to generation” language of Exodus 17, he says, implies a continuing threat even though the Amalekites are gone. It connects God’s oath to destroy Amalek with Genesis 12:3’s promise to “curse those who curse” Israel, which applies to all who oppose God’s plan for global redemption through the Jews.
This cannot be applied, he said, to the people of Gaza collectively.
“The genocidal atrocities committed by Hamas certainly qualify it to be considered Amalek in reincarnation,” Hendren said. “But any attempt to identify an entire group of people with Amalek – such as the Palestinians – is false. »
A few have tried.
In 1980, Rabbi Israel Hess wrote an article titled “Genocide: A Commandment of the Torah,” using Amalek as an example of Palestinian displacement. As a result, Hess was dismissed from his position at Bar Ilan University.
In 1994, extremist Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Muslims who were praying in Hebron, believing they represented the Deuteronomic enemy. The Israeli government condemned the movement he represented as terrorist and banned him from government; However, Goldstein has become something of a folk hero in some far-right circles, particularly among the settler movement.
An admirer, Itamar Ben-Gvir, become Israeli Minister of National Security.
According to Jill Jacobs, director of T’ruah, a rabbinical human rights organization, the “overwhelming history” of Jewish interpretation views Amalek as metaphorical, with the most common application being encouragement to eliminate evil in itself.
“The biblical text has been used for too long to justify wars, and no one should tolerate such use anymore,” acknowledged Myrto Theocharous. “Any interpretation that encourages self-examination and repentance would be preferable. »
Theocharous, professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at the Greek Bible College in Athens, remembers hearing the metaphorical interpretation of Amalek in a synagogue last year, on Purim, when Jews traditionally read the passage from Deuteronomy .
This holiday, described in the Old Testament book of Esther, commemorates the moment when the Jews of Persia faced an existential threat from Haman, described as an “Agagite”, likely a descendant of the last Amalekite king. But the courage of the biblical queen overturned the heart of the king, and with her permission, the Jews killed more than 75,000 people who had plotted to kill them (Esther 9:16).
Hormoz Shariat, founder of Iran Alive Ministries, called it self-defense.
Noting that God is not mentioned in the book of Esther, he says God was at work behind the scenes. Israel had a spiritual calling to produce the Messiah, and Satan – then as now – has a “supernatural and demonic” hatred against the Jews.
“Every time there is a great mission,” Shariat said, “there is an escalation of spiritual warfare.” And whether against Amalek, Haman or against modern Arab nation-states, he says, God protected Israel.
Hendren cited Psalm 83, where the Amalekites are listed along with the Edomites, Ishmaelites, Philistines and others who plot against God’s people to “destroy them as a nation, so that they will be remembered no more of the name of Israel.
The appropriate response, Hendren said, is the “absolute necessity” of aligning with God and His people. Spiritualizing the conflict between Israel and Amalek – into an allegory of the believer’s struggle against sin or the Church’s struggle against evil in society – effectively corresponds to Amalek’s intention: to deny Israel fulfillment promises of God.
“Israel’s role in God’s plan,” he said, “did not end with the birth of the Messiah. »
