Genesis 36:12

Timna. Timna was a sister of Lotan the Horite (v. 22); hence, it is apparent that the family of Esau intermarried with the Horites. This may have provided the sons of Esau with a pretext for seizing Horite land and expelling its ancient inhabitants (Deut. 2:12).

Antalek. Ancestor of the Amalekites, who attacked the Israelites at Horeb on their way out of Egypt (Ex. 17:8-16). Mention of “the country of the Amalekites” in Gen. 14:7 does not necessarily imply their existence in Abraham’s time, but may refer simply to the region inhabited by them when the book of Genesis was written. Balaam’s expression “first of the nations” (Num. 24:20) does not represent Amalek as the aboriginal or oldest tribe, but simply as the first heathen tribe to attack Israel, or perhaps the strongest or most warlike of the desert tribes. Had there been an Amalek — and Amalekites — previous to Edom, considering their important role in opposition to Israel at the time of Moses, we might reasonably expect to find him giving their genealogy, as he does of all others of equal importance to Israel.

At a very early period the Amalekites separated from the other tribes of Edom and formed an independent people, whose home was in the Negeb, in the vicinity of Kadesh (ch. 14:7; Num. 13:29; 14:43, 45). As a nomadic tribe, however, they roamed over the northern portion of Arabia Petraea, from Havilah to Shur on the border of Egypt (1 Sam. 15:3, 7; 27:8). One branch of the tribe even penetrated to the heart of Canaan, so that a range of hills in what later became the inheritance of Ephraim bore the name “mount of the Amalekites” (Judges 12:15; 5:14). Those who settled in Arabia seem also, in the course of time, to have separated into several branches, for Amalekite hordes sometimes joined the Midianites and the “children of the east” (Judges 6:3; 7:12), and at other times the Ammonites (Judges 3:13), on invasions into the land of Israel. They were defeated at various times by Saul (1 Sam. 14:48; 15:2-9) and by David (1 Sam. 27:8; 30:1-20; 2 Sam. 8:12), and were finally exterminated by Hezekiah (1 Chron. 4:42, 43).