The Bible mentions the Hittites. Who were they and what part did they play in history?

Answer 1

This link should answer your question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittites

Answer 2

At the height of the Hittites power their losely knit kingdom stretched from Russia to the Middle East. Their most notable achievement was in the development of iron, which they used for farming implements and even more importantly for weapons. Hittite iron swords were much more effective than the copper and later brass swords of their enemies. Oddly enough it is just relatively recently that historians and archeologists even recognized the former existence of the Hittites as an empire. Remember the story of King David of Israel and the affair he had with Bath Sheba. Her husband was a Hittite citizen of Israel and serving in the Israelite army. David ordered his commanders to abandon him on the battlefield, surrounded by enemies so that he would be killed. Bath Sheba had become pregnant by David and under Mosaic Law she would be stoned to death for committing adultry. As a result of their sins, first commiting adultry and then what was essentially murder their first born child died. David grieved broken-heartedly over the loss of his child. The great king Solomon was the offspring of King David and Bath Sheba. Sorry about the lengthy answer. Sometimes I get too wordy.

Answer 3

Ancient people of Asia Minor and Syria, who flourished from 1600 to 1200 BCE. It was a loose confederation that broke up under the invasions of the Thracians, Phrygians and the Assyrians.

The neo-Hittites that followed (c1050 to c700 BCE) defeated the Assyrians.

Answer 4

They were a very militant tribe in that area. Actually, I believe the Hittites ended up in Greece at some point. Anyways, they were very feared because they had iron weapons before anyone else.

Answer 5

A people descended from Heth, the second-named son of Canaan. (Ge 10:15) They were therefore of Hamitic origin.

Abraham had some dealings with the Hittites, who were residing in Canaan at the time of his moving there. Jehovah had promised to give to Abraham’s seed the land of Canaan, which was inhabited by a number of nations, including the Hittite nation. However, Jehovah told Abraham that “the error of the Amorites (a term often used generally for the nations in Canaan) has not yet come to completion.” Therefore Abraham respected the Hittite ownership of the land, and when his wife Sarah died, he bargained with Ephron the son of Zoar the Hittite for a cave in which to bury her.

In Joshua’s day the Hittites are described as inhabiting the land that covered an area “from the wilderness and this Lebanon to the great river, the river Euphrates, that is, all the land of the Hittites.” (Jos 1:4) Apparently they lived mainly in the mountainous regions, which would include Lebanon and, possibly, areas in Syria. Nu 13:29; Jos 11:3.

Under Noah’s Curse. The descent of the Hittites from Canaan brought them under the curse placed by Noah upon Canaan, and when Israel subjugated them it was in fulfillment of Noah’s words at Genesis 9:25-27. The religion of the Hittites was pagan, undoubtedly being phallic, as were the other Canaanite religions. When Abraham’s grandson Esau married Hittite women, this was “a source of bitterness of spirit to Isaac and Rebekah,” Esau’s father and mother.

God described the land that the Hittites and other associated nations occupied as “a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Ex 3:8) But these nations had become so corrupt that their presence on the land defiled it. Many are the warnings that God gave Israel as to the danger of association with them in their degraded, filthy practices. He lists many immoralities, forbidding the Israelites to engage in them, and then says: “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, because by all these things the nations [including the Hittites] whom I am sending out from before you have made themselves unclean.” Le 18:1-30.

Destruction Decreed. The Hittites were one of the seven nations named as due to be devoted to destruction. These nations were described as “more populous and mighty” than Israel. So the seven nations at that time must have numbered more than three million persons, and the Hittites in their mountain stronghold would be a formidable foe. (De 7:1, 2)
They manifested their enmity by assembling with the other nations of Canaan to fight Israel (led by Joshua) when they got news of Israel’s crossing the Jordan and destroying the cities of Jericho and Ai. The cities of the Hittites therefore should have been destroyed and their inhabitants wiped out so that they would not be a danger to Israel’s loyalty to God and cause Israel to incur God’s disfavor. But Israel carried out God’s command imperfectly. After Joshua passed off the scene they disobediently failed to clear out these nations, which remained as a thorn in the side and a constant harassment to them.—Nu 33:55, 56.

Answer 6

The Hittites were a people from Anatolia (what is now Turkey) who spread southwards accross the middle east and mesopotamia in about 1200BC. They conquered Babylon, Syria, Egypt and had a large empire. It didn't last very long, and they were usurped in Egypt by a resurgent Pharoah and in mesopotamia by (I think) the Assyrians.

Answer 7

They were Israel enemies. God used them to punish Israel when they drew away from God and his laws.