|
|
|
|
|
The Hittites....
|
Hittites" is the conventional English-language term for
an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a
kingdom centered in Hattusa (the modern village of Boğazköy in north-central
Turkey), through most of the second millennium BC.
The Hittite kingdom, which at its height controlled central Anatolia,
north-western Syria down to Ugarit,
and Mesopotamia down to Babylon, lasted
from roughly 1680 BC to about 1180 BC. After 1180 BC, the
Hittite polity
disintegrated into several independent city-states, some of which survived
as late as around 700 BC. |
|
|
|
Map of the Hittites Empire
|
|
 |
|
Hittites or more recently, Hethites is also the common
English name of a Biblical people (HTY in the consonant-only
Hebrew
script), who are also called Children of Heth (HT). These people
are mentioned several times in the Old Testament,
from the time of the
Patriarchs up to Ezra's return from Babylonian captivity; see Hittites in
the Bible. The archaeologists who discovered the Anatolian
Hittites in the
19th century initially believed the two peoples to be the same, but this
identification remains disputed. |
|
|
|
|
The first reference to the Hittites is in
Genesis 23:10,
where Abraham bought the family burial cave at Machpelah from "Ephron the
Hittite" (HTY). Later, in
Genesis 26–36, two of Esau's wives are
labeled as Hittites. In these accounts, the Hittites
are mostly called "The
Children of Heth" (HT) and described as a branch of the
Canaanites, living in the Hebron
area; indeed Heth (HT) is listed in
Genesis 10 as a son of Canaan, son of Ham. |
|
|
|
|
Starting with the conquest of Canaan, the Hittites — from
now on always called HTY — are listed, on a par with the
Canaanites, as
one of the seven mighty peoples living in the region. Later they are cited
among the four nations whom the Israelites were not able to destroy
completely. Indeed, some centuries later, two of King David's
generals are
labeled as Hittites: Ahimelech (1 Samuel 26:6) and Uriah (2 Samuel 11:3);
David had the latter deliberately slain in battle for the sake of his wife
Bathsheba. King Solomon also had
Hittite wives (1 Kings 11:7), and traded
with (or received tribute from) the kings of the Hittites,
of Syria, and of
Egypt (2 Chronicles 1:17). An episode in the time of Elisha (2 Kings 7:6)
mentions "the kings of Hittites and the kings of the
Egyptians" as mighty
powers. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
