Hittite

Hittite

The Hittite (Strong’s Hebrew 2850) designates a member of the Hittite nation—one of the peoples God lists among the inhabitants of Canaan whom Israel was commanded to supposedly dispossess (ref. Genesis 15:20; Exodus 3:8; Deuteronomy 7:1).

While extra-biblical records reveal a vast Anatolian empire, Scripture’s seems to focus on their patronymically from (חֵת - Heth) the Canaanite branch living from Hebron northward to Lebanon and the Orontes valley.

Wherever they appear in the Old Testament, the Hittites function as a tangible reminder of the clash between covenant faithfulness and the seductive pull of idolatry.

As a typology of "Judgment and Redemption" we see Ezekiel’s “Hittite mother” as a metaphor that reveals sin’s capacity to redefine the identity of people along certain precepts.

Yet, in the chapter (Ezekiel 16:60-63), it seems to end with restoration and possibly teaching that God’s covenant mercy triumphs even over the worst apostasies.

The Hittite seems to demonstrate the consequence of a partial obedience which diminishes the blessing full obedience would provide.

This also points to the danger of being Unequal Yoked. Esau’s marriages and Solomon’s alliances and his bringi g people into the Corban of the Pharisees and Egypt.

In 2 Corinthians 6:14 the establishment of a union in the form of a public/political partnerships that ignore spiritual bonds that co es with the Corban of Christ threaten covenant fidelity.

Uriah, though ethnically Hittite, exemplifies covenant devotion more than the Israelite king David himself. We are not to rule over our brothers but bless “all nations” through Abraham (Genesis 12:3).

First mentioned

Hittite or Chitti is first mentioned in Genesis 23:

“10 And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11 Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead."