The Hivites were a group of people who lived in Canaan before the Israelites came.
Archaeologists and historians have not yet found clear evidence of the Hivites outside the Bible. But the Bible says they came from one of the sons of Canaan (Genesis 10:17). They lived in areas around the Lebanon Mountains and Mount Hermon (Judges 3:3; 11:3).
The Hivites appear many times in the Bible as a group that Israel drove out of the land (Joshua 12:8; 24:11; 1 Kings 9:20). But some of them stayed in the land. During the time of the Israelite kingdom, some Hivites still lived near the city of Tyre and in other places (2 Samuel 24:7).
Some scholars think the name “Hivite” may have come from a mistake in copying. In Hebrew, the letters resh (ר) and waw (ו) look similar. This mistake may have changed the name “Horite” to “Hivite.”
Some scholars think there may have been a mix-up in the names. Genesis 36:2 calls Zibeon a "Hivite." In verses 20 and 29, he is called a "Horite". In some places, the Septuagint (an early Greek translation of the Old Testament) says “Horite” instead of “Hivite” (Genesis 34:2; Joshua 9:7). Other passages in the Septuagint read “Hittite” rather than “Hivite” (Joshua 11:3; Judges 3:3).
The overlap between the names Hivite and Horite in Genesis 36 may show that the two groups were connected in some way. This is similar to how the Bible sometimes uses the names Ishmaelites and Midianites for the same group (Genesis 37:27–28, 36). Some scholars think the Hivites and Horites may have been related to the Hurrians. The Hurrians were a well-known group in history and archaeology.
The word “Hivite” appears about 25 times in the Old Testament. Almost one-third of these are in the book of Joshua. This suggests that the Hivites were a real group of people. Most Hivites lived in the land of Canaan, but some also lived in the land of Edom (Genesis 36:2).
The Bible names several Hivites. These include:
the people of Gibeon (Joshua 9:7),
the northern Hivites (Judges 3:3–8), and
those who lived near Tyre (2 Samuel 24:7).
When Solomon was king of Israel, the Hivites and other foreign people who lived in the land were forced to work as slaves (1 Kings 9:20–21; 2 Chronicles 8:7).