Who are the Hivites in the Bible?

The Hivites were part of the larger Canaanite people, pagans whom Deuteronomy 7:1 identifies as one of seven nations “larger and stronger” than Israel. Israel’s subsequent victory over those more powerful nations shows God’s miraculous work on behalf of His people. The Bible mentions the Hivites in several Old Testament passages, most often in a negative light: Genesis 10:17; 34:2; Exodus 3:8; 3:17, 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deuteronomy 7:1; 20:17; Joshua 3:10; 9:7; 11:3, 19; 12:8; 24:11; Judges 3:3; 2 Samuel 24:7.

Scripture first refers to the Hivites in the Table of Nations as descendants of Noah’s grandson Canaan (Genesis 10:17). Noah cursed Canaan, and that curse fell on all Canaan’s descendants, including the Hivites (Genesis 9:25–27). The fulfillment of Noah’s curse involved the Israelites’ conquest of the land of Canaan (Joshua 1—12).

The Hivites are also mentioned in the distressing story of Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. Dinah had gone to visit some friends when she was sexually assaulted by a man named Shechem, whom the Bible identifies as the “son of Hamor the Hivite” (Genesis 34:2). This assault led Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi to lay a trap for Shechem and Hamor and kill them and the other men of the city. After the slaughter, “they seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses” (Genesis 34:28–29).

Yet another mention of the Hivites comes after God freed Israel from slavery in Egypt. In Exodus 23:23, God tells Israel, “My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.” At the same time, He warns His people not to adopt the pagan practices of these people (verse 24).

In Joshua 9, a group of Hivites show themselves to be crafty when it comes to self-preservation. The Gibeonites, who are also called Hivites (Joshua 9:7), approached the Israelites with a ruse. Other Canaanite nations had joined to fight Israel, but the Gibeonites, having seen the victories God had given Israel, acted more shrewdly. The Gibeonites pretended to be poor travelers from a distant land and asked Israel to make a covenant with them. Without consulting God first, the Israelites entered a peace treaty with them, ratifying it with an oath to the Lord (verses 14–15). Because of the oath, Israel had to honor the pact even after the truth became known. They could not destroy the Gibeonites who had deceived them, so the Israelites made them their servants (verses 26–27).

God’s providence over all this is seen in Judges 3:3–4, which lists the Hivites among other nations God allowed to test Israel—a test they failed: “So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods” (Judges 3:5–6, ESV).

The last mention of the Hivites in Scripture is in a passage that describes David conducting an unauthorized census. The Hivites were among those included in the census (2 Samuel 24:7). David’s hubris in numbering the nation of Israel as if they belonged to him rather than to God led to divine punishment of the Israelites (2 Samuel 24).

The Hivites, like most of the other “ites” mentioned in the Bible, have become footnotes of ancient history—with one exception: the Israelites. God still has a plan for Israel that will not be thwarted (Deuteronomy 30:1–10; Romans 11:26).