HEVEI (Heb. hā-hīwāš, always with the article and in the singular; Septuagint ὁ Εὐαῖος, occasionally οἱ Εὐαῖοι). — A people settled in the land of Canaan and always included in the list of the peoples inhabiting the land before the Israelite conquest (Ex. 2, 11; 3, 8; 13, 5; 23, 28; Deut. 7, 1; 20, 17; Ios. 3, 10; 9, 1; 12, 8; 24, 11; Iud. 3, 5; II Reg. 9, 29; II Par. 8, 7; V. CANAAN).
As a distinct group, the H. appear at Shechem in the time of Jacob (Gen. 33, 18; 34, 2); their descendants continued to exert an influence on the life of the country even after the conquest (Iud. 3, 28). At Gibeon they formed a confederation of four cities governed by elders, and by a stratagem obtained a treaty of friendship with the Israelites; but, once the deception had been discovered, they were compelled to perform the humble services of woodcutters and water carriers (Ios. 9, 7; 11, 19). Another important center lay in the north, at the foot of Mount Hermon (Ios. 11, 3; Iud. 3, 3), and they had their own villages there until the time of David (II Sam. 24, 7). Together with the other Canaanite peoples who remained in the land, they were compelled in the time of Solomon to provide labor for the great building projects (I Reg. 20, 22; II Par. 8, 7-8), and little by little they were absorbed into Israel.
The hypothesis that sees in the H. of the Bible a group belonging to the Hurrian people (v. HUTERITI) is still debated. The fact that in Gen. 36, 2 hā-hīwāš is read (in vv. 20, 29) hā-hōrī, and that the Septuagint translates hā-hīwāš (in Gen. 34, 2; Ios. 9, 7; 11, 3; Iud. 3, 3) with χορραῦος, may result from an easy confusion of the second letter; but, according to E. Speiser, it presupposes an original hā-hōrī. Nevertheless, he thinks that, owing to popular etymology (Hōriti = inhabitants of caves), the original reading was replaced by hā-hīwāš, a hypothetical Hurrian clan. W. F. Albright, with greater probability, regards the biblical tradition concerning the real distinction between the two peoples as historical, but acknowledges that, because of the similarity of the letters, they were often confused and interchanged by copyists. He suggests reading hā-hōrī in the texts concerning Shechem and Tyre (Gen. 36, 2; Ios. 9, 7; 11, 3; Iud. 3, 3; II Sam. 24, 7) and hā-hīwāš in the south (Gen. 36, 20; Deut. 2, 12-22). The biblical picture would thus have to be reversed, with the H. replacing the Hōriti in the south, and vice versa.