The Hittites
Like the Amorites, the Hittites
were one of the nations conquered by the Israelites. At their peak in
1500 BCE, the Hittites' kingdom stretched from Asia Minor to southern
Syria. There are many parallels between the Egyptian and Hittite cultures:
Both kingdoms centered their cities along a dominant river (the Nile and
Euphrates, respectively), both believed their king to be an emissary of
God, and both practiced feudalistic systems which included slavery. There
are several interactions between the Hittites and the Israelites in the Torah, including when Abraham purchases a cave from Machpelah,
a Hittite as well as when Esau takes a Hittite wife.
Sources: Bridger, David. Ed. The
New Jewish Encyclopedia. NY: Behrman House, Inc. 1976.
Schreiber, Mordecai (ed.). The
Shengold Jewish Encyclopedia. Shengold Books. 1998.
Telushkin, Joseph. Jewish
Literacy. William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1991. |