He'brew. This word first occurs as given to Abram by the Canaanites, Genesis 4:13 because he had crossed the Euphrates. The name is also derived from Eber, "beyond, on the other side", Abraham and his posterity being called Hebrews, in order to express a distinction between the races, east and west of the Euphrates.

It may also be derived from Heber, one of the ancestors of Abraham. Genesis 10:24. The term Israelite, was used by the Jews of themselves among themselves; the term Hebrew was the name by which they were known to foreigners. The latter was accepted by the Jews in their external relations; and after the general substitution of the word Jew, it still found a place in that marked and special feature of national contradistinction, the language.