Heth

Heth (Heb. Chetf, חֶת, dread; Sept. (ὁ Χετταῖος, and so Josephus, Ant. 1, 6, 2), a son (descendant) of Canaan, and the ancestor of the HITTITES (Ge 5:20; De 7:1; Jos 1:4), who dwelt in the vicinity of Hebron (Ge 23:3,7; Ge 25:10). The 'kings of the Hittites" is spoken of all the Canaanitish kings (2Ki 2:6). In the genealogical tables of Genesis 10 and 1 Chronicles 1, Heth is named as a son of Canaan, younger than Zidon the firstborn, but preceding the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the other Canaanitish-families. The Hittites were therefore a Hamitic race, neither of the "country" nor the "kindred" of Abraham and Isaac (Ge 24:3-4; Ge 28:1-2). In the earliest historical mention of the nation the beautiful narrative of Abraham's purchase of the cave of Machpelah they are styled, not Hittites, but Bene-Cheth (A.V. "sons and children of Heth," Ge 23:3,5,7,10,16,18; Ge 25:10; Ge 49:32). Once we hear of the "daughters of Heth" (27:46), the "daughters of the land," at that early period still called, after their less immediate progenitor, "daughters of Canaan" (28:1, 8, compared with 27:46, and 26:34, 35; see also 1Ki 11:1; Eze 16:3). In the Egyptian monuments the name Chat is said to stand for Palestine (Bunsen, Egypten, quoted by Ewald, Gesch. 1, 317, note). SEE HITTITE.