Horite, Horim
Horite, Horim
hort, horim (, hor, , horm; , Chorraoi): Denoted the inhabitants of Mt. Seir before its occupation by the Edomites (Deu 2:12). Seir is accordingly called Horite in Gen 36:20, Gen 36:30, where a list of his descendants is given, who afterward mixed with the invading Edomites. Esau himself married the daughter of the Horite chieftain Anah (Gen 36:25; see Gen 36:2, where Hivite must be corrected into Horite). The Horites in their Mt. Seir were among the nations defeated by the army of Chedorlaomer in the age of Abraham (Gen 14:6). The Hebrew Horitc, however, is the Khar of the Egyptian inscriptions, a name given to the whole of Southern Palestine and Edom as well as to the adjacent sea. In accordance with this we find in the Old Testament also traces of the existence of the Horites in other parts of the country besides Mt. Seir. In Gen 34:2; Jos 9:7, the Septuagint (Cod. A) more correctly reads Horite instead of Hivite for the inhabitants of Shechem and Gibeon, and Caleb is said to be the son of Hur, the first-born of Ephratah or Bethlehem (1Ch 2:50; 1Ch 4:4). Hor or Horite has sometimes been explained to mean cave-dweller; it more probably, however, denotes the white race. The Horites were Semites, and consequently are distinguished in Deu 2:12 from the tall race of Rephaim.