HETH

[perhaps, terror, dread].

The second-listed son of Canaan and great-grandson of Noah through Ham. (Gen. 10:1, 6, 15; 1 Chron. 1:13) Heth was ancestral father of the Hittites (1 Ki. 10:29; 2 Ki. 7:6; see HITTITES), one branch of which settled in the hill country of Judah. (Ex. 3:8) It was in the vicinity of Hebron that Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite the field of Machpelah, and the cave therein, as a burial place. (Gen. 23:2-20; 25:8-10; 49:32) Of its fourteen occurrences, the name Heth appears ten times in connection with the “sons of Heth.” Two of Esau’s wives were from among the “daughters of Heth” (also called “daughters of Canaan”), these wives being a source of grief to his parents.—Gen. 26:34, 35; 27:46; 28:1, 6-8.