Agag

Agag (; Hebrew: אֲגָג, romanized: ʾĂḡāḡ) is a Northwest Semitic name or title applied to a biblical king. It has been suggested that "Agag" was a dynastic name of the kings of Amalek, just as Pharaoh was used as a dynastic name for the ancient Egyptians. The etymology is uncertain, according to John L. McKenzie (1995), while Cox (1884) suggested "High." In the Torah, the expression "Its king higher than Agag, and its kingdom exalted" was uttered by Balaam in Numbers 24:7, in his third prophetic utterance, to describe a king of Israel who would be higher than the king of Amalek. This is understood to mean that Israel's king would take a higher position than even Amalek himself, and would exercise a wider authority. The writer uses an allusion to the literal significance of the word "Agag", meaning "high", to convey that the king of Israel would be "higher than High". A characteristic trait of biblical poetry is the use of puns. Agag also refers to the Amalekite king who survived King Saul's extermination campaign, as punishment for Amalekite crimes, in the Book of Samuel. Saul failed to execute Agag and allowed the people to keep some of the spoils, and this resulted in Samuel's pronouncement of God's rejection of Saul as king. Agag was then executed by Samuel, to punish him for his offense of "bereaving women of children with the sword".