And Joshua mowed down Amalek translates a word that means to cause to become weak or even prostrate, that is, lying flat on the ground. New American Bible also has “mowed down,” and Jerusalem Bible has “cut down,” since the sword is also mentioned. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh uses “overwhelmed,” but others simply use “defeated” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Revised English Bible). Good News Translation strengthens it a bit with “totally defeated.” This should not be understood as complete annihilation, for some of them evidently survived.

Amalek and his people again simply means “the Amalekites,” or “people of Amalek,” since Amalek was the ancestor of this tribe. With the edge of the sword, literally “to the mouth of the sword,” is intended to be descriptive and emphatic. The people normally fought with swords, so it is not necessary to retain the expression. Translator’s Old Testament has “killing them mercilessly,” but this may be assuming too much. The idea is that it was a total victory for the Israelites: “In this way Joshua totally defeated the Amalekites” (Good News Translation).

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .