Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HORITES

(Heb. ḥōrî)

1. A seminomadic people living in Seir-Edom (Gen. 14:6; 36:20; Deut. 2:12, 20; NRSV “Horim”). In Gen. 36:2 these people are called ḥiwwî (LXX Gk. euaíon), “Hivites,” and thus both names probably refer to the same people.

2. Hivites are mentioned in Gen. 34:2; Josh. 9:7, where the LXX translates chorraíos, Horites. These people, possibly related to the Hurrians, resided in the hill country near Mt. Hermon and in Lebanon.

One suggestion for the use of both Horite and Hivite is that the letters resh and waw were easily confused in early Hebrew manuscripts. In addition, Horite is the biblical name for Hurrian, a people known in the ancient Near East as early as the middle of the 3rd millennium. Hurrians were in Palestine at the time of the Amarna Letters (14th century b.c.e.); the prince of Jerusalem had a Hurrian name; and the Egyptians called Palestine Hur or Hurru. The double resh preserved in the Greek, and Hurrian, was not tolerated in Hebrew, and the shift from u to o was probably normal: thus, Hurr- became Hor-. The etymology deriving Horite from the Hebrew root meaning “cave” is incorrect.

Bibliography. W. F. Albright, “The Horites in Palestine,” in From the Pyramids to Paul, ed. L. G. Leary (New York, 1935), 9-26; E. A. Speiser, “Ethnic Movements in the Near East in the Second Millennium b.c.,” AASOR 13 (1931-32): 13-54.

Lawrence A. Sinclair

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HORITES

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)