Heth

Heth (meaning trembling; fear) was the second son of Canaan and grandson of Noah (Gen. 10:15; 1 Chr. 1:13), ancestor of the Hittites. The "sons of Heth" (bĕnê-ḥēt) is used interchangeably with "Hittites" in the patriarchal narratives: Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite, a son of Heth, to bury Sarah (Gen. 23:3–20). Esau's marriages to Hittite women grieved his parents Isaac and Rebekah (Gen. 26:34–35; 27:46). The biblical Hittites (sons of Heth) are not always identical to the great Hittite empire of Anatolia; some scholars distinguish the Syro-Palestinian Hittites as a separate entity, possibly descendants of Heth as a Canaanite tribal ancestor.