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Horites

Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia

(cave-dwellers; Gen. 14:6; 36:20–30; Deut. 2:12, 22)—the inhabitants of Mount Seir, south of Canaan between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. Their name was traditionally connected with the caves and clefts of their country. Chedorlaomer defeated them in Abraham’s time; Esau’s descendants later dispossessed them and occupied Seir. In Jehoshaphat’s reign forces from Moab, Ammon, and Mount Seir turned against one another after Judah sought the LORD (2 Chron. 20:22–23). The source’s equation of all Horites with Greek “Troglodytes” is an old conjecture, not a secure ethnic identification.

Scripture cited

Genesis 14:6Deuteronomy 2:122 Chronicles 20:22

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