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Bible Dictionaries
Horites
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or HORITES . The pre-Edomitic inhabitants of Seir or Edom according to Genesis 14:6 (a late passage) and Deuteronomy 2:12; Deuteronomy 2:22 (D [Note: Deuteronomist.] 2). Apparently they commingled with the Edomite invaders, for Genesis 36:20-21; Genesis 36:29 (P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] 3) counts them among the descendants of Esau. The name is usually taken to mean ‘cave-dwellers,’ and this is probably correct. There are many tombs in the rocks at Petra (cf. Robinson, BRP [Note: RP Biblical Researches in Palestine.] 2 ii. 129, 134), and some of these, like some at Beit Jibrin and some recently discovered at Gezer (cf. PEFSt [Note: Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1902, pp. 345 ff., and 1903, pp. 9 12) may have been used as dwellings originally. Sayce ( HCM [Note: CM Higher Criticism and the Monuments.] 203 ff.) derives the name from a root meaning ‘white’ as contrasted with the ‘red’-skinned Edomites, while Hommei ( AHT [Note: HT Ancient Hebrew Tradition.] 261 ff.) takes it as a form of Garu (or Kharu ) of one of the Amarna tablets. Kharu was, however, in Egyptian a name for all the inhabitants of Syria (cf. W. M. Müller, Asien und Europa , 148 ff.), and can hardly be connected with Horites . Driver ( Deut . p. 38) favours the explanation as equivalent to ‘cave-dwellers’ or ‘troglodytes.’
George A. Barton.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Horites'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/h/horites.html. 1909.
