Hivites

(dwellers of villages, huts) (Gen. 10:17) — one of the most ancient Canaanite peoples, who dwelt in Palestine before its conquest by the Israelites. Their genealogy is given in the book of Genesis (10:17), where Hivi, forefather of the Hivites, is numbered sixth among those born of Canaan. In the days of the patriarch Jacob, the Hivites dwelt in the midst of the land of Canaan, at Shechem (present-day Nablus) (Gen. 34:2). At that time the Hivite people, it appears, was not numerous or powerful.

In the book of Genesis (36:2) one of Esau’s wives is called a Hivite. The Hivites are mentioned in the book of Joshua (9:1, 7; 11:19) as the inhabitants of Gibeon, near Mount Hermon. Well known is the ruse they employed against the Israelites at the time of Joshua’s conquest of the Promised Land (Josh. 9:3–27; see Gibeon). In the book of Judges (3:3) it is said of the Hivites that they dwelt on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon to the entrance of Hamath. In the vicinity of this region the Hivites also dwelt at the time when Joab, at David’s command, passed through all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites for the purpose of numbering the people of Israel (2 Sam. 24:7).

After the time of Solomon they are no longer mentioned in Holy Scripture, since under this king they, like other Canaanite peoples remaining among the Hebrews, were reduced to forced labor (1 Kings 9:20).