HITTITES

HODESH

his followers among the early inhabitants of the land, while P tells us (Gn 23) that Abraham bought from a Hittite the cave of Machpelah at Hebron. They are probably the people known in Egyptian inscriptions as Kheta, in Assyrian annals as Khatti, and in Homer (Od. xi. 521) as Kmeioi.

It is supposed that the carved figures found in many parts of Asia Minor, having a pecuUar type of high hat and shoes which turn up at the toe, and containing hieroglyphs of a distinct type which are as yet unde-ciphered, are Hittite monuments. Assuming that this is correct, the principal habitat of the Hittites was Asia Minor, for these monuments are found from Karabel, a pass near Smyrna, to Erzerum, and from the so-called Niobe (originally a Hittite goddess) , near Magnesia, to Jerabis, the ancient Carchemish, on the Euphrates. They have also been found at Zenjirli and Hamath in northern Syria (cf. Messerschmidt's 'Corp. Inscript. Hett.' in MitteUungen der Vorderas. GeseU. vol. v.; and Sayce, PSBA vol. xxviii. 91-95). It appears from these monuments that at Boghazkui east of the Halys, at Marash, and at various points in ancient Galatia, Lycaonia, Isauria, and Qlicia the Hittites were espe-cially strong. It is probable that their civilization was developed in Asia Minor, and that they afterwards pushed southward into northern Sjrria, invading a region as far eastward as the Euphrates.

This is confirmed by what we know of them from the inscriptions of other nations. Our earliest mention of them occurs in the annals of Thothmes iii. of Egypt (about B.C. 1500), to whom they paid tribute (cf. Breasted's AncieM Records of Egypt, il. 213).

In the reign of Amenophis in. (about B.C. 1400) they attempted unsuccessfully to invade the land of Mittani on the Euphrates, and successfully planted themselves on the Orontes valley in Syria (cf. KIB v. 33, and 255, 257). In the reign of Amenophis iv. they made much greater advances, as the el-Amama letters show. In the next dynasty Seti i. fought a battle with the Hittites between the ranges of the Lebanon (Breasted, op cit. iii. 71). In the reign of Eameses n. Kadesh on the Orontes was in their hands. Rameses fought a great battle with them there, and afterwards made a treaty of peace with them (Breasted, op. cit. iii. 125 tf., 165 tE.). Meren-Ptah and Rameses iii. had skirmishes with them, the latter as late as B.C. 1200. From the similarity of his name to the names of Hittite kings, Moore has conjectured (JAOS xix. 159, 160) that Sisera (Jg 5) was a Hittite. If so, in the time of Deborah (about B.C. 1150) a Hittite dynasty invaded northern Palestine.

About B.C. 1100 Tiglath-pileser i. of Assyria fought with Hittites (KIB i. 23). In David's reign individual Hittites such as Ahimelech and Uriah were in Israel (1 S 26«, 2 S 11' etc.). Kings of the Hittites are said to have been contemporary with Solomon (1 K 10" 11'), also a century later contemporary with Joram of Israel (2 K 7'). In the 9th cent, the Assjrrian kings Ashur-nazir-pal (KIB i. 105) and Shalmaneser ii. (ib. p. 139) fought with Hittites, as did Tiglath-pileser in. (ib. ii. 29), in the next century, while Sargon n. in 717 (ib. 11. 43; Is 10') destroyed the kingdom of Carchemish, the last of the Hittite kingdoms of which we have definite record. The researches of recent years, especially those of Jensen and Breasted, make it probable that the aiicians were a Hittite people, and that Syennesis, king of CSlicia, mentioned in Xenophon's Anabasis as a vassal king of Persia about B.C. 400, was a Hittite. Possibly the people of Lycaonia, whose language Paul and Barnabas did not understand (Ac 14"), spoke a dialect of Hittite.

The Hittites accordingly played an important part in history from B.C. 1500 to B.C. 700, and Ungered on in many quarters much longer. It is probable that a Hittite kingdom in Sardis preceded the Lydian kingdom there (cf. Herod, i. 7). The Lydian Cybele and Artemis of Ephesus were probably originally Hittite divinities.

Jensen, who has made a little progress in deciphering the Hittite inscriptions, believes them to be an Aryan people, the ancestors of the Armenians (cf. his Hittiter und Armenia-), but this is very doubtful.

Politically the Hittites were not, so far as we know, united. They seem to have formed small city-kingdoms.

The reUgion of the Hittites seems to have had some features in common with Semitic reUgion (cf. Barton, Semitic Origins, pp. 311-316). Georqe A. Bahton.

HIVITES.— One of the tribes of Palestine which the IsraeUtes displaced (Ex 3'- " [J]). Our oldest source (J) says that they were the people who, fearing to meet the Israelites in battle, by a ruse made a covenant with them (Jos 9'). A Deuteronomic editor states that their villages were Gibeon, Chephira, Kiriath-jearim, and Beeroth (Jos 9"). Gibeon was six miles N.W. of Jerusalem, and Beeroth ten miles N. of it. Probably, therefore, they inhabited a region north of Jerusalem. Gn 34' (P) makes the Shechemites Hivites, but this is of doubtful authority. The main part of the chapter is silent on this point. In Jos 11' and Jg 3' they seem to be located near Hermon in the Lebanon, but 'Hivite' is probably here a corruption of 'Hittite' (cf. Moore, Judges, p. 79). Deuteronomic editors introduce Hivites often in their list of Canaanitish peoples, usually placing them before Jebusites. Perhaps this indicates that they lived near Jerusalem. 2 S 24', though vague, is not inconsistent with this. Some have supposed Hivite to mean ' villager,' but the etymology is most uncertain. Really nothing is known of their racial affinities. Geokgb A. Babton.

HIZKI.— A Benjamite (1 Ch 8").

HIZKIAH (AV Hezekiah).— A son of Neariah, a descendant of David (1 Ch 3»).

HOBAB.— In E (Ex 3i 4'8 IS'- «■) the father-in-law of Moses is uniformly named Jethro. But Nu lO^s (J) speaks of ' Hobab the son of Beuel the Midianite Moses' father-in-law' (hsthin). It is uncertain how this should be punctuated, and whether Hobab or Reuel was Moses' father-in-law. The former view is found in Jg 4" (cf. 1"), the latter in Ex 2<8. The RV in Jg 1« 4" attempts to harmonize the two by rendering hBtKen ' brother-in-law.' But this harmonization is doubtful, for (1) though it is true that in Aram, and Arab, the cognate word can be used rather loosely to describe a wife's relations, there is no evidence that it is ever so used in Heb. ; and it would be strange to find the father and the brother of the same man's wife described by the same term; (2) Ex 2« appears to imply that the priest of Midian had no sons. It is probable that the name Reuel was added in v." by one who misunderstood Nu l<?'. The suggestion that 'Hobab the son of has accidentally dropped out before Reuel is very improbable. Thus Jethro (E) and Hobab (J) are the names of Moses' father-in-law, and Reuel is Hobab's father. A Moham-medan tradition identifies Sho' alb (perhaps a corruption of Hobab), a prophet sent to the Midianites, with Moses' father-in-law. On his nationality, and the events connected with him, see Kenites, Midian, Jethro.

A. H. M'Neile.

HOBAH. — The place to which, ace. to Gn 14", Abraham pursued the defeated army of Chedorlaomer. It is described as 'on the left hand (i.e. 'to the north') of Damascus.* It is identified, with considerable prob-abiUty, with the modern Hoba, 20 hours N. of Damascus.

HOBAIAH.— See Habaiah.

HOD ('majesty').— An Asherite (1 Ch 7").

HODAVIAH.— 1. A Manassite clan (1 Ch 5«). 2. The name of a Benjamite family (1 Ch 9'). 3. A Levitical family name (Ezr 2"); called in Neh 7" Hodevah. 4. A descendant of David (1 Ch ^).

HODESH ('new moon'). — One of the wives of Shaharaim, a Benjamite (1 Ch 8»).

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