Hitt, Daniel, a Methodist Episcopal minister of considerable eminence, was born in Fauquier Countv, Va., entered the itinerancy in 1790, became the travel- ling companion of bishop Asbury in 1807, and in 1808 was elected by the General Conference one of the agents of the ]\Iethodist Book Concern, the duties of which of- lice he discharged for eight years. He next, with great fidelity, served as presiding elder until 1822, when he became the travelling companion of bishop M'Kendree. In 1823 he took charge of the Potomac District; after two years' labors he passed to the Carlisle District, and there closed his earthly work. Mr. Hitt was a man of marked " simpUcity and integrity," and "' the affability of his manners and the sweetness of his disposition, in his private intercourse in society, gained him the affec- tion of all." He died of typhus fever, in great peace and sure hope, in September, 1825. — Minutes of Conf. i, 507.
Hit'tite, or rather Cuethite (Heb. Chitti', Tn, usually in the plur. D"^Ori, Sept. Xtrra7oi ; also Ttl "^la^ " children of Heth ;" fern. ri"'r,n, Ezek. xvi, 3 ; plur. ni'nn, l Kings xi, 1 ; also TXl Jlira, " daughters of Heth," Gen. xxvii, 46), the designation of the descend- nts of Heth, and one of the nations of Canaan (q. v.).
I. Biblical Notices (1.) With five exceptions, noticed
below, the word is 'iplHil="the Cliittite;" m the sin- gular number, according to the common Hebrew idiom. It is occasionally rendered in the A. V. in the singular number," the Hittite"(Exod.xxiii, 28; xxxiii,2; xxxiv, 11 ; Josh, ix, 1 ; xi, 3), but elsewh. as a \Aut. (Gen. xv, 20; Exod. iii, 8, 17; xiii, 5; xxiii, 23; Numb, xiii, 29; Deut.vii, 1; xx, 17; Josh, iii, 10; xii,8; xxiv, 11; Judg. iii, 5 ; 1 Kings ix, 20 ; 2 Chron. viii, 7 ; Ezra ix, 1 ; Neh. ix, 8 ; 1 Esdr. viii, 69, Xirrnioi). (2.) The plural form of the word is a'^Onil =the Chittim, or Hittites (Josh, i, 4 ; Judg. i, 26 ; 1 Kings x, 29 ; 2 Kings vii, 6 ; 2 Chron. i, 17). (3.) "A Hittite [woman]" is r'^tin (Ezek. xvi, 3, 45). In 1 Kings xi, 1, the same word is rendered " Hittites."
In the list of the descendants of Noah, Heth occupies the second place among the children of Canaan. It is to be observed that the first and second names, Sidon and Heth, are not gentile nouns, and that all the names following are gentile nouns in the sing. Sidon is called the first-born of Canaan, though the name of the town is probably put for that of its founder, or cponym, " the fisherman," 'AXuvg, of Philo of Bjblus. It is therefore probable, as we find no city Heth, that this is the name of the ancestor of the nation, and the gentile noun, chil- dren of Heth, makes this almost certain. After the enu- meration of the nations sprung from Canaan, it is add- ed, "And afterwards were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad" (Gen. x, 18). This passage will be illus- trated by the evidence that there were Hittites and Amorites beyond Canaan, and also bej'ond the M'ider territorj' that must be allowed for the placing of the Hamathites, who, it may be added, perhaps had not mi- grated from Canaan at the date to which the list of Noah's descendants mainly refers (see verse 19). See Canaaxite.
1. Our first introduction to the Hittites is in the time of Abraham, when they are mentioned among the in- habitants of the Promised Land (Gen. xv, 20). Abra- ham bought from the Bene-Cheth, " Children of Heth" — such was then their title — the field and the cave of Machpelah, belonging to Ephron the Hittite (Gen. xxiii, 3-18). They were then settled at the town which was afterwards, under its new name of Hebron, to become one of the most famous cities of Palestine, then bearing the name of Kirjath-arba, and perhaps also of Jlamre (Gen. xxiii, 19 ; xxv, 9). The propensities of the tribe appear at that time to have been rather commercial than military. The "money current with the mer- chant," and the ]3rocess of weighing it, were familiar to them ; the peaceful assembly " in the gate of the city" was their manner of receiving the stranger who M'as de-
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sirous of havinj:; a " possession" " secured" to him amontc them. The dignity and courtesy of their demeanor also come out strongly in this narrative. As Ewald well says, Abraham chose liis allies in warfare i'rom the Amorites, but he goes to the Hittites for his grave. But the tribe was evidently as yet but small, not imjiortant enough to be noticed beside " the Canaanite and the Perizzite," who shared the bulk of the land between them (Gen. xii, 6 ; xiii, 7). In the southern part of the country they remained for a considerable period after this, possi- bly extending as far as (lerar and Beersheba, a good way below Hebron (xxvi, 17; xxviii, 10), From their families Esau married his tirst two wives (Gen. xxvi, 34 ; xxxvi, 2 sq.), and the fear lest Jacob should take the same course is the motive given by Rebekah for sending Jacob away to Haran. It was the same feeling that had urged Abram to send to INIesoiJotamia for a wife for Isaac. The descendant of Shem could not wed with Hamites — " with tlie daughters of the Canaanites among \vhom I dwell . . . wherein I am a stranger," but " go to my country and thy kindred" is his father's com- mand, " to the liouse of thy mother's father, and take thee a wife frojn-thence" (Gen. xxviii, 2 ; xxiv, 4). See