HITTITES. - A people now well known from the texts of el-'Amarnah and Boghazköy, often mentioned in the Bible (Hebrew Heth, plural Hittim; also bēnē Hēth; Septuagint Xetrai, Vulgate Hethaei), in the historical books. Some biblical passages refer to a kingdom of the Hittites and to a Hittite race living outside the land of Canaan; however, neither the kingdom nor the land is localized. Recent discoveries have vindicated Sacred Scripture and refuted the hasty assertions of critics half a century ago who saw in the biblical statement of a Hittite empire a gross error.
Explicit references to a "kingdom" of the Hittites are: 1 Kings 10:29; Solomon procured horses for the "kings" of the Hittites and for those of Damascus; 2 Kings 7:6: "Behold, the king of Israel has allied himself against us (Syrians) with the 'kings' of the Hittites and of the Egyptians who will fight against us." Other texts seem to refer to a Hittite population outside Canaan. King Solomon had foreign wives; the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt, a Moabite, Sidonian, Hittite (1 Kings 11:1). Many centuries earlier, Esau, son of Jacob, married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite (Gen. 26:34). Judges 1:22-23 tells of an anonymous man driven from his city of Luz, later called Bethel, who goes to the "land of the Hittites" to found a city that was given the name Luz.
However, most biblical passages refer to Hittites living in Canaan. In the time of Abraham, a colony of bēnē Hēth or Hittites lived in the region of Hebron (between Jerusalem and the Negeb), which seems to have possessed fairly extensive lands. The patriarch Abraham deals with them for the purchase of a field, which becomes a burial place for Sarah, his wife, for him and his family. In the covenant made with Abraham (Gen. 15:18-21), in the numerous texts where the inhabitants of the Promised Land are mentioned, the Hittites are listed alongside the Amorites and other immigrant or indigenous peoples in Canaan. Num. 13:29 determines the geographical position of the populations that will be subjected to the chosen people: the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites (v.) inhabit the mountains, while the Canaanites dwell by the sea and near the Jordan. Moreover, two Hittites lived in the time of David (c. 1025): Ahimelech (consulted by the fugitive persecuted: "Who will accompany me against Saul?"; 1 Kings 26:6) and Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, victim of the murderous and adulterous king.
In the prophetic books, only Ezek. 16:3-45 mentions the Hittites, saying that the mother of Israel (i.e., the Hebrews) was a Hittite.