“Who were the Hivites?”

by Lydia Mbalachi | 23 September 2025 08:46 pm09

Who Were the Hivites?

Answer: The Hivites were one of the seven nations that Israel drove out of the Promised Land. The other six were the Canaanites, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Perizzites, and Girgashites (see Joshua 3:10).

The Hivites lived in the hill country of Lebanon, on the northern border of Israel:

Judges 3:3

“These are the nations the Lord left: to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan … the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath.”

They were also found in Mizpah, near Gibeon:

Joshua 11:3

“…to the Canaanites in the east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites in the hill country; and to the Hivites below Hermon in the region of Mizpah.”

So, the Hivites lived in different parts of the land. They were the same people who deceived the Israelites into making a treaty of peace with them. They pretended to come from a faraway country, while in reality, they lived nearby (see Joshua 9:1–27).

The main reason God removed these seven nations from the Promised Land was their wickedness. They practiced sorcery, murder, immorality, oppression, injustice, and many other evil deeds without fear of God. That was the first reason. The second reason was God’s promise to Abraham.

Deuteronomy 9:4–6

“After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you.

It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

For these same reasons, Israel too was later removed from the Promised Land and taken into captivity in Assyria and Babylon.

2 Chronicles 36:14–17

“Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place.

But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.

He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men or young women, the elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.”

And even today, for the same reasons, many of us lose the blessings and promises of God and end up living under curses.

Remember this always: the first poison to destroy a person is sin, not Satan. What drove the first man out of the Garden of Eden was sin. What reduced human life from eternity to only 120 years was sin. That’s why our greatest fear should be sin, not Satan—because Satan uses sin to destroy humanity.

If a person can overcome sin by remaining in the Word of God, Satan becomes powerless—like a soldier who has been stripped of his weapons.

The key to overcoming sin is found only in the Lord Jesus, and it begins with repentance, followed by true baptism, and finally the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38

“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

If a person sincerely completes these three steps, sin will not be able to defeat them, and they will continue to live in the promises and blessings of God—without the need for oil, salt, or so-called “anointed soil.”

May the Lord help us.

Source URL: https://wingulamashahidi.org/2025/09/23/who-were-the-hivites/

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