- ALTASCHITH destroy not, the title of Psalm 57, 58, 59, and 75. It was
probably the name of some song to the melody of which these psalms
were to be chanted. - ALUSH one of the places, the last before Rephidim, at which the
Hebrews rested on their way to Sinai (Numbers 33:13, 14). It was
probably situated on the shore of the Red Sea. - AMALEK dweller in a valley, the son of Eliphaz and grandson of Esau
(Genesis 36:12; 1 Chronicles 1:36); the chief of an Idumean tribe (Genesis
36:16). His mother was a Horite, a tribe whose territory the descendants
of Esau had seized. - AMALEKITE a tribe that dwelt in Arabia Petraea, between the Dead Sea
and the Red Sea. They were not the descendants of Amalek, the son of
Eliphaz, for they existed in the days of Abraham (Genesis 14:7). They
were probably a tribe that migrated from the shores of the Persian Gulf
and settled in Arabia. “They dwelt in the land of the south...from Havilah
until thou comest to Shur” (Numbers 13:29; 1 Samuel 15:7). They were a
pastoral, and hence a nomadic race. Their kings bore the hereditary name of
Agag (Numbers 24:7; 1 Samuel 15:8). They attempted to stop the
Israelites when they marched through their territory (Deuteronomy 25:18),
attacking them at Rephidim (Exodus 17:8-13; comp. Deuteronomy 25:17;
1 Samuel 15:2). They afterwards attacked the Israelites at Hormah
(Numbers 14:45). We read of them subsequently as in league with the
Moabites (Judges 3:13) and the Midianites (Judges 6:3). Saul finally
desolated their territory and destroyed their power (1 Samuel 14:48; 15:3),
and David recovered booty from them (1 Samuel 30:18-20). In the
Babylonian inscriptions they are called Sute, in those of Egypt Sittiu, and
the Amarna tablets include them under the general name of Khabbati, or
“plunderers.” - AMANA perennial. (1.) The Hebrew margin of 2 Kings 5:12 gives this as
another reading of Abana (q.v.), a stream near Damascus.
(2.) A mountain (Cant. 4:8), probably the southern summit of
Anti-Libanus, at the base of which are the sources of the Abana.
- AMARIAH said by Jehovah. (1.) One of the descendants of Aaron by
Eleazar (1 Chronicles 6:7,52). He was probably the last of the high priests