"Mass
Murder - "This is what the Lord
of hosts has to say: 'I will punish what Amalek did to Israel when he
barred his way as he was coming up from Egypt. Go, now, attack Amalek,
and deal with him and all that he has under the ban. Do not spare him,
but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and
asses." (1 Samuel 15:2-3 NAB)
To
get a better sense of what is going on in this passage, it would be helpful to
read what the Amalekites did to the Israelites earlier on in their
history. You can read the story here:
The Hebrew word used in 1 Samuel
15:3 is charam, meaning "the
complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either by destroying
them or by giving them as an offering" [1]. Only God could decide
when this type of devotion occurred, and it was always in response to a
grievous sin that the person or people had committed against the Lord.
For example, when the Israelites were travelling out of Egypt, the Amalekites
attacked the weakest and most vulnerable people among them: “Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the
way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you
on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of
God. 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
name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!"
(Deuteronomy 25:17-19, NIV).
In response to the Amalekites murdering the weakest of the Israelites who had
fallen behind the others (the text seems to indicate that these included the
elderly, the sick, and those with young children, although this is not
specified), God determined that the Amalekites would be destroyed (1 Samuel
15). He was, in essence, sentencing them to death for their crime.
There was another
reason that God ordered the elimination of the Amalekites; they were a nation
hostile to Israel, who were constantly at war against them, seeking their
destruction. Because Saul did not carry
out God's command to destroy them, they continued their raids against
Israelites, at one point burning towns and carrying off women and children as
plunder before being stopped by David (1 Samuel 30). Centuries later, Haman, a descendant of an
Amalekite king named Agag, plotted to wipe out all of the Jewish people living in
Persia (Book of Esther). God knew that
the Amalekites were determined to completely destroy the Israelites, which is
why he issued the command for them to be killed.
As in previous
passages, the command to kill the women and children is a difficult issue. We must remember that the children would have
grown up following the same customs and practices as their parents; they would
have been taught to hate Israel and seek their destruction,
and would have been lost for eternity.
God took their lives in childhood to prevent this from occurring.
References
[1]
Footnote in the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT). This term (charam) occurs in the following verses:
Exodus 22:20; Leviticus 27:21, 28-29; Numbers 18:14; 21:2-3; Deuteronomy 2:34;
3:6; 7:2, 26; 13:15-17; 20:17; Joshua 2:10; 6:17-21; 7:1, 11-15; 8:26; 10:1,
28, 35, 37, 39-40; 11:11-12, 20-21; 22:20; 1 Samuel 15:3, 8-9, 15, 18-21.
