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Bible Encyclopedias
Avim
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or A´vim, called also Avites and Hivites, a people descended from Canaan (Genesis 10:17), who originally occupied the southernmost portion of that territory in Palestine along the Mediterranean coast, which the Caphtorim or Philistines afterwards possessed (Deuteronomy 2:23). As the territory of the Avim is mentioned in Joshua 13:3, in addition to the five Philistine states, it would appear that it was not included in theirs, and that the expulsion of the Avim was by a Philistine invasion prior to that by which the five principalities were founded. The territory began at Gaza, and extended southward to 'the river of Egypt' (Deuteronomy 2:23), forming what was the sole Philistine kingdom of Gerar in the time of Abraham, when we do not hear of any other Philistine states. There were then Avim, or Hivites, at Shechem (Genesis 34:2), and we afterwards find them also at Gibeon (Joshua 9:7), and beyond the Jordan, at the foot of Mount Hermon (Joshua 11:3); but we have no means of knowing whether these were original settlements of the Avim, or were formed out of the fragments of the nation which the Philistines expelled from southern Palestine. The original country of the Avim is called Hazerim in Deuteronomy 2:23 [GERAR; PHILISTINES].
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Avim'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/a/avim.html.
