HIVITES hī’ vīts (חִוִּ֖י; LXX, ̓Ευαῖοι). One of the names appearing in the lists of peoples dispossessed by the Israelites (Exod 3:8, 17; 13:5; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deut 7:1; 20:17; Josh 3:10; 9:1; 11:3; 12:8; 24:11; Judg 3:5; 1 Kings 9:20, cf. 2 Chron 8:7). In Genesis 10:17, the Hivite is one of the sons of Canaan. Hivites were located in the Lebanon hills (Judg 3:3) and in the Hermon range (Josh 11:3). In the reign of David they are listed after Sidon and Tyre (2 Sam 24:7), implying their location near these cities. Hamor, the father of Shechem, is called a Hivite (Gen 34:2). The inhabitants of Gibeon to the N of Jerusalem are identified as Hivites (Josh 9:7; 11:19). Many equate the Hivites with the Horites, assuming an early textual corruption of r(esh) to w(aw). A certain Zibeon is called a Horite (Gen 36:20-30), whereas in v. 2, the same man had been called a Hivite. The LXX of Joshua 9:7 and Genesis 34:2 reads “Horite” instead of MT “Hivite.” Some MSS of the LXX read “Hittite” for MT’s “Hivite” (Josh 11:3; Judg 3:3). Clearly these strange ethnica confused the scribes.

It has been maintained that, since no name that closely resembles Heb. חִוִּ֖י has yet been found in extra-Biblical sources, the Biblical name should be viewed as a corruption of Horite, and that both Hivites and Horites should be seen as groups related culturally and linguistically to the Hurrians (q.v.).

Bibliography E. Meyer, Die Israeliten und deren Nachbarstämme (1906), 328-345; E. A. Speiser, AASOR, 13 (1933), 26-31; H. A. Hoffner, Jr., Tyndale Bulletin, 20 (1969), 27-37.