HIVITES . One of the tribes of Palestine which the Israelites displaced ( Exodus 3:8; Exodus 3:17 [J [Note: Jahwist.] ]). Our oldest source (J [Note: Jahwist.] ) says that they were the people who, fearing to meet the Israelites in battle, by a ruse made a covenant with them ( Joshua 9:7 ). A Deuteronomic editor states that their villages were Gibeon, Chephira, Kiriath-jearim, and Beeroth ( Joshua 9:17 ). Gibeon was six miles N. W. of Jerusalem, and Beeroth ten miles N. of it. Probably, therefore, they inhabited a region north of Jerusalem. Genesis 34:2 (P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] ) makes the Shechemites Hivites, but this is of doubtful authority. The main part of the chapter is silent on this point. In Joshua 11:3 and Judges 3:3 they seem to be located near Hermon in the Lebanon, but ‘Hivite’ is probably here a corruption of ‘Hittite’ (cf. Moore, Judges , p. 79). Deuteronomic editors introduce Hivites often in their list of Canaanitish peoples, usually placing them before Jebusites. Perhaps this indicates that they lived near Jerusalem. 2 Samuel 24:7 , though vague, is not inconsistent with this. Some have supposed Hivite to mean ‘villager,’ but the etymology is most uncertain. Really nothing is known of their racial affinities.
George A. Barton.