Genesis 10:15 names him as the second son of Kena'an (Canaan), and father of the Beney Chet, whom we call the Hittites; but we know that the Hittites came from Anatolia, the lands of the goddess Anat, wife of Ba'al, in approximately 2200 BCE, establishing an immense empire that swept south, conquering much of Asia Minor including Greece, Cyprus, Crete, Kena'an and Mitsrayim (Egypt), as well as conquering eastwards too, as far as the Indus Valley. As Beney Kena'an (Canaanites) in the Tanach, they are normally treated as the inhabitants of the region of Chevron, and they appear to have made Chevron their religious if not their political capital.
Genesis 15:20 includes the Beney Chet in the territory of Av-Raham's covenant.
Genesis 23:3 ff tells us that Av-Raham purchased the Cave of Machpelah at Mamre from Ephron (Phoroneus) of the Beney Chet, from which we can assume that the cave was an ancient Hittite burial-cave, most likely its royal sepulchre.
In fact it is apparent from the legends, as well as the recent archaeology, that the double-cave of Machpelah must have been a temple-shrine and burial place for anything up to 20,000 years, long before the Beney Chet arrived. Whether or not Adam was one of the aboriginal Nephilim before he became the Edomite sun-hero is not clear, nor is it clear whether he originates at Machpelah or was brought there later; there is, after all, a legend that his skull is buried at Yeru-Shala'im as well as at Chevron, that his is the skull of Golgot-Yah (Golgotha). Either way we can assert that there was a cave-shrine there long before the Beney Chet, and that the Aramaeans who purchased it under Av-Raham were most likely themselves of Hittite stock. The prophetess of the shrine would have served the Hittite mother-goddess Chawa, who became Hebe in Greece, Chavah (Eve/חוה) to the Beney Yisra-El.
Genesis 26:34 tells us that Esav married Yehudit, daughter of Beri of the Beney Chet. It is particularly interesting that the name Yehudit should thus appear to be a Beney Chet name, and that Esav should marry back into the Beney Chet, and thus link them through his other wife to the Edomites.
Genesis 27:46 has Rivkah sending Ya'akov away "lest he marry a Hittite woman", as Esav his brother had done, and which was probably the real reason why Esav forfeited both his birthright and his father's blessing. In this statement we can begin to find evidence that the so-called family of Av-Raham, Yitschak and Ya'akov was in fact entirely unrelated; particularly in the light of Ezekiel 16:3, which states of Yisra-El as a nation: "Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite."
Genesis 36:2 Esav, having one Hittite wife already, then took another, Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite. Elon means an oak-tree; the name Adah occurs elsewhere, as a wife of Lamech and mother of Yuval and Yaval; Adah probably means "princess". So did Esav marry a Hittite woman, or did the Edomite tribe he founded by breaking with his own Amorite tribe make a religious bonding through intermarriage with two Hittite priestesses? What is certain from this is that Esav's line is Hittite/Edomite.
Genesis 26:34 tells us that Esav married Yehudit, daughter of Beri of the Beney Chet. It is particularly interesting that the name Yehudit should thus appear to be a Beney Chet name, and that Esav should marry back into the Beney Chet, and thus link them through his other wife to the Edomites.
Genesis 27:46 has Rivkah sending Ya'akov away "lest he marry a Hittite woman", as Esav his brother had done, and which was probably the real reason why Esav forfeited both his birthright and his father's blessing. In this statement we can begin to find evidence that the so-called family of Av-Raham, Yitschak and Ya'akov was in fact entirely unrelated; particularly in the light of Ezekiel 16:3, which states of Yisra-El as a nation: "Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite."
Genesis 36:2 Esav, having one Hittite wife already, then took another, Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite. Elon means an oak-tree; the name Adah occurs elsewhere, as a wife of Lamech and mother of Yuval and Yaval; Adah probably means "princess". So did Esav marry a Hittite woman, or did the Edomite tribe he founded by breaking with his own Amorite tribe make a religious bonding through intermarriage with two Hittite priestesses? What is certain from this is that Esav's line is Hittite/Edomite.
But the Tanach is very confused on this. The Hittites are often called Chivim or Hivites (Genesis 10, 1 Chronicles 1:15 et al), which some scholars regard as meaning "villagers" rather than denoting a clan or tribe, though it is just as likely that it was an alternative name to Hittite, based on the mother-goddess Chawah, and there is no evidence that Chivim does mean "villages". Equally often they are called Chorim or Horites (Genesis 36:20 et al), which likewise is not a clan or tribal denotion but a description of them as "cave-dwellers" and "troglodytes", and which may in fact simply be a way of expressing their aboriginal or "First Nation" equivalence. Esav's genealogical table throughout asserts a family connection to Se'ir the Chori.
See also Deuteronomy 7:1, Joshua 1:4, 2 Kings 7:6, and 1 Kings 11:1 (where Shelomoh also takes a wife from the Beney Chet) et al.
Chet means - or more probably came to mean – "terror" or "fear". What did it mean in the Hittite language? A fascinating essay here; and an even more fascinating essay here.
See also Deuteronomy 7:1, Joshua 1:4, 2 Kings 7:6, and 1 Kings 11:1 (where Shelomoh also takes a wife from the Beney Chet) et al.
Chet means - or more probably came to mean – "terror" or "fear". What did it mean in the Hittite language? A fascinating essay here; and an even more fascinating essay here.
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