1 Samuel 15:7

Havilah. The location of Havilah is unknown. Some scholars think it refers to a “sand land”; others, to “sandy dunes.” From the river of Egypt (see on Num. 34:5), Judah’s southwestern boundary, west toward Egypt, is at the present time nothing but a barren waste of sand. The word shur means “wall,” which, it is thought, refers to the wall of fortresses built by the Egyptian kings along their eastern border from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean for protection against Asiatic invasions (see on Ex. 2:15; 13:20; 14:2). The desert just east of Egypt is called “the wilderness of Shur” (see on Gen. 16:7; 25:18; Ex. 15:22). Inasmuch as the Amalekites still inhabited the same southern district in David’s day (1 Sam. 30), it is probable that the “city of Amalek” (ch. 15:5) was the residence of Agag the king, and that Saul’s army destroyed that site and scattered the Amalekites far into the desert of Shur. This raid against the Amalekites probably differed but little from their raids on Israel both before and after Saul’s day (Judges 6:3-5; 10:12; 1 Sam. 30:1-18). Saul was apparently content with an incomplete campaign. He had captured Agag, and in ancient times whenever a king was taken his land seems to have been considered subjugated (see Joshua 12:7-24).