I wanted to ask questions concerning I Samuel 15:32, 33. Saul had been told to utterly destroy the Amalekites but brought back to the Israelites King Agag alive. They had put all of Agag’s people to the sword. Samuel had King Agag brought before him and killed him. My question is — In Esther 3: 1, how was it that Haman, the Agagite, could have been a descendent of King Agag if he and all his people had been utterly destroyed? I know that the Amalekites came from the concubine of a son of Esau. The note in my study bible says, “Some believe Agagite is a reference to the historical district of Agag within the Persian Empire. Others believe this term more likely linked Haman’s descent with the Amalekites. I am confused as to how this could be. I would appreciate any light you could shed on the problem.
Samuel did indeed write that all the Amalekites had been killed. He must have been referring to all the Amalekites who had remained in their villages because 1 Chron 4:43 says that in the days of King Hezikiah, about 300 years later, 500 men from the tribe of Simeon killed the rest of the Amalekites , who had apparently escaped before Saul could get to them. This helps explain why God was so angry with Saul, and also how Haman could have been a descendant of King Agag.