God's cruelty to the Amalekites 1 Sam 15:3

There are two aspects to this story: the biblical story is about the disobedience of Saul to totally destroy the Amelekites and thus to be rejected as king by the Lord. The skeptics view is about God's cruelty to the Amalekites.

(1 Sam 15:1-3 NIV) Samuel said to Saul, "I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. {2} This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. {3} Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'"

This is a short overview of the data, for a much fuller response see Glenn Miller's ...shouldn't the butchering of the Amalekite children be considered war crimes?

Because Saul rejected the word of the Lord by not carrying out the instructions by not totally destroying everything and everyone Saul was himself rejected as king by the Lord.

(1 Sam 15:9-11 NIV) But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs--everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed. {10} Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: {11} "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night.

(1 Sam 15:17-23 NIV) Samuel said, "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. {18} And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.' {19} Why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD?" {20} "But I did obey the LORD," Saul said. "I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. {21} The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal." {22} But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. {23} For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king."

The key data is this:

I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 1 Sam 15:2.

What did the Amalekites do to Israel?

(Exo 17:8-16 NIV) The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. {9} Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands." {10} So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. {11} As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. {12} When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up--one on one side, one on the other--so that his hands remained steady till sunset. {13} So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. {14} Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." {15} Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner. {16} He said, "For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation."

EBC comments on Exo 17:8:

The Amalekites lived in the desert, south of Canaan around Kadesh (Gen 14:7), otherwise known as the northern part of the Negev (Num 13:29; 14:25, 43). Amalek was the son of Eliphaz (Esau's eldest boy) by a concubine named Timna (Gen 36:12) and became a "clan" or "chief" in the tribe of Esau (Gen 36:15). Thus the Amalekites were distant cousins to the Israelites. There is every possibility that they had known about the promise of the land of Canaan that had been given to Esau's twin brother, Jacob; therefore, they should not have felt any threat to their interests in the Negev had this promise been remembered and taken seriously. After all, the promise was to be a means of blessing Amalek along with all the other nations (Gen 12:3) if only they, like Abraham, would have believed. Instead they "came" (wayyabo') and attacked Israel at Rephidim--some distance south of the north-central district of the Sinai where they lived. Amalek's assault on Israel drew the anger of God on two counts: (1) they failed to recognize the hand and plan of God in Israel's life and destiny (even the farther-removed Canaanites of Jericho had been given plenty to think about when they heard about the Exodus-- Josh 2:10); and (2) the first targets of their warfare were the sick, aged, and tired of Israel who lagged behind the line of march (Deut 25:17-19). Thus Amalek became the "first among the nations" (Num 24:20)--in this case, to attack Israel. They are placed in juxtaposition with another group of Gentiles in the next chapter (Jethro's Midianites) who believed in Israel's God. These two chapters illustrate two kingdoms and two responses to the grace of God from the Gentile world. EBC

(Deu 25:17-19 NIV) Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. {18} When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. {19} When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

The Israelites should not forget what the Amalekites did to them over 200 hundred years ago.

They killed all the weak, the old, the weary, they had contempt for human life and for God and his people. They had no fear of God, this was their primary sin, their killing of the weary and worn out was evidence of this. They showed contempt for God by showing contempt for his people. They were a parasitic nation. As the background will show below they continued to live off the work of others to the time of Saul (at least 200 years). They never learned to do any better, if they had then perhaps God would have a reason for relenting from his judgement upon them. Now the Israelites had relative rest in the land and Saul was king over the people, so God commands Saul, through Samuel, to totally destroy them. The time had come to fulfill what God had told Moses some 200 years earlier Deu 25:19. They reaped what they sowed, they showed contempt for human life and now they would be treated the same way.

(1 Sam 15:33 NIV) But Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women." And Samuel put Agag to death before the LORD at Gilgal.

Now especially poignant in 1 Sam 15:3 are the words "put to death men and women, children and infants " or as the KJV has it "but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling". Now the argument of the skeptics is that God is a sadistic and inhumane killer of little innocent children suckling at their mothers breast. Who would want to do that?

We should also point out that the Amalekites, also showed contempt of the weak and worn out -- probably the old. They cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God.

Unfortunately we do not have a graphic description of what the Amalekites did to the Israelites. What they did to the "weary and worn out", and "cut off all who were lagging behind".

Further background biblical data:

The Amalekites wanted to wipe out Israel as a nation.

(Psa 83 NIV) A song. A psalm of Asaph. O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. {2} See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads. {3} With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. {4} "Come," they say, "let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more." {5} With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you-- {6} the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, {7} Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. {8} Even Assyria has joined them to lend strength to the descendants of Lot. Selah {9} Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, {10} who perished at Endor and became like refuse on the ground. {11} Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, {12} who said, "Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God." {13} Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind. {14} As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, {15} so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm. {16} Cover their faces with shame so that men will seek your name, O LORD. {17} May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. {18} Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD-- that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

The Amalekites were descendants of Esau and were therefore related to the Israelites.

(Gen 36:12-16 NIV) Esau's son Eliphaz also had a concubine named Timna, who bore him Amalek. These were grandsons of Esau's wife Adah. {13} The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were grandsons of Esau's wife Basemath. {14} The sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon, whom she bore to Esau: Jeush, Jalam and Korah. {15} These were the chiefs among Esau's descendants: The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: Chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz, {16} Korah, Gatam and Amalek. These were the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in Edom; they were grandsons of Adah.

Amalek is first amongst the nations:

(Num 24:20 NIV) Then Balaam saw Amalek and uttered his oracle: "Amalek was first among the nations, but he will come to ruin at last."

There was a long history of the Amalekites attacking Israel.

(Exo 17:8-14 NIV) The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. {9} Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands." {10} So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. {11} As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. {12} When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up--one on one side, one on the other--so that his hands remained steady till sunset. {13} So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. {14} Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."

(Num 14:45 NIV) Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.

The Amalekites killed all the stragglers when the Israelites left Egypt.

(Deu 25:17-19 NIV) Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. {18} When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. {19} When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

The Amalekite attacks continued through the long period of the Judges.

(Judg 3:13 NIV) Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms.

(Judg 6:1-6 NIV) Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. {2} Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. {3} Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. {4} They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. {5} They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. {6} Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.

(Judg 6:33 NIV) Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.

The Amalekites were still plundering the Israelites at the time of Saul, they had not changed their method for over 200 years.

(1 Sam 14:47-48 NIV) After Saul had assumed rule over Israel, he fought against their enemies on every side: Moab, the Ammonites, Edom, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he inflicted punishment on them. {48} He fought valiantly and defeated the Amalekites, delivering Israel from the hands of those who had plundered them.

Saul disobeyed the Lord by not wiping them out altogether but took some plunder.

(1 Sam 15:18-19 NIV) And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.' {19} Why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD?"

The story in full. This has much to say why God rejected Saul as king because he did not fully obey the Lord's orders.

(1 Sam 15 NIV) Samuel said to Saul, "I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. {2} This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. {3} Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'" {4} So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim--two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from Judah. {5} Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. {6} Then he said to the Kenites, "Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites. {7} Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt. {8} He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. {9} But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs--everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed. {10} Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: {11} "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night. {12} Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal." {13} When Samuel reached him, Saul said, "The LORD bless you! I have carried out the Lord's instructions." {14} But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?" {15} Saul answered, "The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest." {16} "Stop!" Samuel said to Saul. "Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night." "Tell me," Saul replied. {17} Samuel said, "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. {18} And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.' {19} Why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD?" {20} "But I did obey the LORD," Saul said. "I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. {21} The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal." {22} But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. {23} For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king." {24} Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned. I violated the Lord's command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them. {25} Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD." {26} But Samuel said to him, "I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!" {27} As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. {28} Samuel said to him, "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors--to one better than you. {29} He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind." {30} Saul replied, "I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God." {31} So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the LORD. {32} Then Samuel said, "Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites." Agag came to him confidently, thinking, "Surely the bitterness of death is past." {33} But Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women." And Samuel put Agag to death before the LORD at Gilgal. {34} Then Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. {35} Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the LORD was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.

EBC comments on 1 Sam 15:

The significance and uniqueness of the divine command to annihilate the Amalekites is underscored by hrm "the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the LORD, often by totally destroying them" (NIV mg., v. 3). Although the root appears often enough elsewhere in the OT in contexts of holy war, it occurs in the books of Samuel only here in chapter 15. The verb ("completely/totally destroyed") is found, however, a total of seven times in this one chapter (vv. 3, 8, 9 [bis], 15, 18, 20), while its cognate noun ("what was devoted to God") appears once (v. 21). The precise meaning of the verb in this context is secured by the verbs associated with it at its first occurrence in v. 3: "attack," "do not spare," "put to death." Although all the verbs except one in v. 3 are in the singular, Saul is not expected to accomplish the grisly task himself. The key verb "totally destroy" is plural and thus implicates the Israelite troops as well (in two MT MSS "totally destroy" is also singular, obviously an attempt to harmonize it with the other verbs).

It is furthermore clear that "everything that belongs to them" (v. 3) here means "everything among them that breathes" (cf. strikingly, Deut 20:16-17). Representative pairings of animate creatures doomed to destruction conclude the verse. This list is ominously echoed--almost verbatim--in 22:19, where Saul exterminates all the inhabitants of the town of Nob. Fokkelman observes that "in killing everyone in Nob, including Yahweh's priests, Saul takes his revenge against God. Saul does to a town of Yahweh's priests what God through Samuel had ordered Saul to do to the Amalekites" ("Saul and David," p. 28). The command in v. 3 is specific: "Do not spare them"--Saul, however, rationalized the disobedience of that command (vv. 9, 15).

We should not be surprised that Saul did not flinch at the prospect of killing ostensibly innocent women and children. Although outside of Israel the root hrm in the sense here outlined occurs only in line 17 of the Mesha inscription (Rudolf Smend and Albert Socin, Die Inschrift des Konigs Mesa von Moab [Freiburg: J.C.B. Mohr, 1886], pp. 12, 23), wars in the ancient Near East always had a religious dimension, and the battlefield was an arena of divine retribution. The Amalekites, in their persistent refusal to fear God (Deut 25:18), sowed the seeds of their own destruction. God is patient and slow to anger, "abounding in love and faithfulness" (Exod 34:6); he nevertheless "does not leave the guilty unpunished" (v. 7).

The agent of divine judgment can be impersonal (e.g., the Flood or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah) or personal (as here), and in his sovereign purpose God often permits entire families or nations to be destroyed if their corporate representatives are willfully and incorrigibly wicked (cf. Josh 7:1, 10-13, 24-26). For further discussion of this sensitive issue, see especially the nuanced treatments of Peter C. Craigie, The Problem of War in the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978); John W. Wenham, The Enigma of Evil: Can We Believe in the Goodness of God? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985), pp. 99-101, 119-25, 165-68.

Afterthought:

My feeling is that there is something missing in the biblical narrative:

(Deu 25:17-19 NIV) Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. {18} When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God

It was much worse than the narrative suggests.

The Amalekites, who refused to repent for over 200 years, were a nation ripe for reaping, because of their contempt for the weak, they had no fear of the Lord. We should also ask how ripe are we for reaping? Are we any better. Don't we exploit the poor in other countries for national and personal advantage. Who makes your shoes--'made in China'-- who makes them in China but the poor who want a better life. Mostly young girls who want a better life for their parents, and live far away from their family in a hostel and earn subsistence wage (which they send home to their family). Whose family sense of duty vastly exceeds that of us in the West. We are ripe for judgement, do we have fear of God, No! Instead we have utter contempt for God. Some of us complain to God about his treatment of the innocent, but when do we do anything about the starving innocent. When did we lift a little finger to help the starving poor children in the world, when... never.

Now especially poignant are the words "put to death men and women, children and infants " or as the KJV has it "but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling". Now the argument of the skeptics is that God is a sadistic and inhumane killer of little innocent children suckling at their mothers breast. Who would want to do that?

Although in our 'civilized' society we do not seem too upset by ripping a little, defenseless, unborn child into little pieces in the name of a woman's right to chose (not to be a nursing mother). The sign of decay of any society is its ill treatment of the very young or unborn and its ill treatment of the aged and infirm.

EBC - Expositors Bible Commentary Zondervan