Who are the Hivites in the Bible?

One of the races found early in Palestine: they were descendants of Ham through Canaan. Gen. 10:17. Jacob, on his return to Palestine, found Shechem occupied by the Hivites. Gen. 34:2. They also possessed Gibeon, and found means to deceive Joshua into making a league with them. Joshua 9:3, 7. They seemed to be more a commercial than a warlike people. We also find the Hivites in the north in mount Lebanon, and Israel was beguiled into making marriage contracts with them. Judges 3:3, 5, 6. In the days of Solomon they were still in the land, and were made tributary to Israel. 1 Kings 9:20. Israel suffered through not carrying out the directions of God to cast out these and other inhabitants of the land. They were by them led into idolatry.

A people established early in Canaan, the origin of whom is not known, except that they were descended from Canaan. Gen. 10:16; Gen. 15:21; Deut. 7:1; Joshua 3:10; Joshua 24:11; 1 Chr. 1:14; Neh. 9:8.

Well, how did Israel meet all this? How did the people respond to this fresh invitation on God's part, to test them as to their faithfulness? In the fifth verse we read, The children of Israel "dwelt," made their home, settled down. That is the thought, they have settled down; where? Amongst the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. There is a list of names, and I have no doubt that each of those names has its special significance. We might attempt to characterize them. Canaanites are "traffickers;" Hittites, "sons of terror;" Amorites are "talkers;" Perizzites are "rulers;" Hivites are "villagers;" Jebusites are "treaders down."

The people of Gibeon and perhaps of the three confederate cities — Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim. Joshua 9:17. They were Hivites, and 'mighty' men. Having deceived Joshua into making a treaty with them, they were made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of God. Joshua 9:23. Saul, upon an occasion not recorded, had slain some of the Gibeonites, and it apparently had been passed over and forgotten; but God could not allow the oath of His people to be violated; He therefore brought a famine on the land. On David inquiring of the Lord, it was revealed that the famine was because of the slaying of the Gibeonites. They were appealed to, and reparation offered them. They claimed that as it was Saul who had sought to destroy them from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, seven of his descendants should be given to them. These they hanged in the hill before the Lord, and God was entreated for the land. 2 Sam. 21:1-14. In this passage the Gibeonites are called 'Amorites,' a common designation of the Canaanites, which does not clash with their being called Hivites in Joshua 9:7. Ismaiah, one of David's thirty mighty men, was a Gibeonite.1 Chr. 12:4. Some of them returned from exile and helped to build the wall of Jerusalem. Neh. 3:7; Neh. 7:25.

Amongst these combined peoples were the Hivites, whose cities — Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim — were four. The heads of these cities took counsel together, and, while others of their nation sought the sword, they resorted to stratagem in order to gain their end — "they did work wilily."

The Hittites were of Heth or Cheth. Their daughters troubled Isaac and Rebecca, though we hear of Abraham friendly with them and others. They like the Jebusites and the Amorites betook themselves to the mountains from the south, and afterwards were outside in the valley of the Orontes. So in 1 Kings 10:29 their kings are spoken of with "the Kings of Aram" or Syria; they seem without doubt to be the Khatti of the Egyptian inscriptions, on the western side of the Euphrates. They had however shared in the efforts against Joshua (9, 11) and suffered accordingly. In Ezek. 16:3, 45, "thy mother was a Hittite" is no more meant literally than "thy father was an Amorite." They are the prophet's figures of moral reproach.

As for the races mentioned after these, little more is to be said than what lies on the surface of scripture: "And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite" (vers. 16-18). The Jebusites held Jerusalem, though defeated by Joshua, but not dispossessed till David. The Amorite was in the mountain land of Judah, but pushed east where on their full or expulsion the two and a half tribes settled east of the Jordan. The Girgashites disappeared from view. Of the Hivites we have the remarkable tale the Book of Joshua tells, and of its consequences, at least of those in Gibeon; for there were others further north and outside, near whom settled the latter five families, or on the coast, and also in the isle of Aradus.

The notices of the Canaanite families are more minute, as God considered His people whose duty it was to execute judgment and dispossess them of the promised land. However they might be "spread abroad" or dispersed, and seen to flourish for a while, the curse was on them, from the first on moral grounds, aggravated at last by enormities against God and man which to His eyes called for extermination.

The Gibeonites were Hivites. They came with deceptions, knowing well what was their lot. The deceptions were inspired by the father of lies.

LAND OF MIZPEH, the resort of the Hivites, who joined with Jabin to attack Joshua. It was 'under Hermon,' and therefore in the north of Palestine, Joshua 11:3; this is possibly the same as

The Canaanites ("traffickers") were also determined to stay in the land. They represent the mercenary spirit of seeking material gain from spiritual things, an evil that Israel failed to banish from their land. The Sidonians (meaning "hunters") were also a test to Israel. Hunting is generally seen in scripture in an unfavorable light, as David expresses to Saul, "For the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when he hunts a partridge in the mountains" (1 Sam. 26:20). This spirit of inquisition has terribly affected the Church of God through the years. There are those who hunt out what they claim to be evil and have by this means exterminated more true believers than they have heretics. Added to these were the Hivites (meaning "livers"). They stand for the hypocrisy of claiming that a decent life without any confession of Christ is sufficient to give one a favorable position before God. This is a subtle enemy indeed. May we be preserved from this wickedness.

Verse 4 tells us those nations were left to test Israel, but verse 5 immediately follows to show that they failed the test, for they intermingled by marriage among these nations and served their idols. Added also to these nations mentioned in verse 3 were the Hittites ("children of fear"), Amorites ("sayers"), Perizzites ("squatters") and Jebusites ("treaders down"), so that all these evils very soon afflicted the Israelites. Such being the case, they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and Asherahs (v. 7). Once the thin edge of the wedge of evil begins its work, it is not long before it brings a complete cleavage. If once we welcome evil, we shall soon find that it is far too strong for us, and we become slaves.

A people descended from Canaan, son of Ham. Gen. 10:16, They dwelt in the mountains, as their name signifies, and were apparently at times in the mountains both east and west of the Jordan. Num. 13:29; Joshua 5:1; Judges 1:34-36; Judges 10:8; 1 Kings 4:19. Being the most dominant and the most corrupt people or tribe they sometimes represent the Canaanites generally. Gen. 15:16; 1 Kings 21:26. When Abraham was at Hebron some confederated with him. Gen. 14:13. A remnant out of the Gentile nations was thus associated with the heir of promise, though Lot (a type of Israel after the flesh) had separated from him.

When Israel approached the promised land, they were in the east, and refused to let Israel pass; but they were overcome, their cities taken, and the people slain, with Sihon their king. Num. 21:21-26; Deut. 2:24; Amos 2:9-10. Some must have escaped, for we read of them later, and one of the controversies Jehovah had with Israel was for worshipping their gods. Ezra 9:1-2. Solomon made them tributary. 1 Kings 9:20-21; 2 Chr. 8:7-8. The Gibeonites were a remnant of the Amorites. 2 Sam. 21:2. After this nothing is heard of them. The low state of Jerusalem (Judah) by nature is described by stating her origin, her father being an Amorite and her mother a Hittite, but God in grace had compassion upon her in her degradation, and raised her into great glory; though, alas, she was shamefully unfaithful. Ezek. 16:3-43.