Hebrew word · H90

אֲגָג

'agag

Agag

Proper name of an Amalekite king. It may have been a dynastic title of Amalekite rulers, the way 'Pharaoh' was for Egypt's kings or 'Abimelech' possibly was for Philistine kings, but that is not certain.

Appears 8 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man living at the time of United Monarchy, first mentioned at 1Sa.15.8

Also named: a.ga.gi (אֲגָגִי "Agagite" H0091)

§ Agag = "I will overtop"

king of Amalek, spared by Saul but slain by Samuel

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Numbers 24:7

Range of meaning

Proper name of an Amalekite king. It may have been a dynastic title of Amalekite rulers, the way 'Pharaoh' was for Egypt's kings or 'Abimelech' possibly was for Philistine kings, but that is not certain.

Against the English

All major English versions keep 'Agag'. The Septuagint (and, per the standard apparatus, the Samaritan Pentateuch) has 'Gog'.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Samuel 15:8–33: Saul defeats Amalek and spares King Agag, whom Samuel then kills. Esther 3:1: Haman is 'the Agagite', which ties him to Israel's ancient Amalekite enemy (Josephus, Antiquities 11.209, calls him an Amalekite). Numbers 24:20, in the same oracle series: 'Amalek was first among the nations.' Exodus 17:8–16: Amalek was the first nation to attack Israel after the Exodus, and God swears war on it 'from generation to generation'.

Where it appears

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 24:7 מֵֽאֲגַג֙ more than Agag

    Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will have abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted.

    Here: 'Above/more than Agag'. The prefix mi- makes a comparison. Agag is the name, or possibly the royal title, of the king of Amalek, Israel's first and most hated enemy (Exodus 17; Numbers 24:20). Israel's king will outrank the most formidable king the hearers knew of.

1 Samuel · 7

  1. 1 Samuel 15:8 אֲגַ֥ג Agag

    He captured Agag king of Amalek alive, but devoted all the others to destruction with the sword.

  2. 1 Samuel 15:9 אֲגָ֗ג Agag

    Saul and his troops spared Agag, along with the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs, and the best of everything else. They were unwilling to devote them to destruction, but they devoted to destruction all that was despised and worthless.

  3. 1 Samuel 15:20 אֲגַג֙ Agag

    “But I did obey the LORD,” Saul replied. “I went on the mission that the LORD gave me. I brought back Agag king of Amalek and devoted the Amalekites to destruction.

  4. 1 Samuel 15:32 אֲגַג֙ אֲגַ֖ג אֲגָ֔ג Agag

    Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.” Agag came to him cheerfully, for he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

  5. 1 Samuel 15:33 אֲגָ֛ג Agag

    But Samuel declared: “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal.

    Here: The Amalekite king whom Saul spared against orders (15:8–9). The name also appears in Balaam's oracle (Numbers 24:7) and may have been a royal title among the Amalekites.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.