Horites

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Horites or Horim were a people mentioned in the Torah (Genesis 14:6, 36:20, Deuteronomy 2:12) inhabiting areas around Mount Seir. They have been identified with Egyptian references to Khar (formerly translated as Harri), which concern a southern region of Canaan. Despite the widespread influence of the Hurrians, a more northerly people, these were probably not the same as the Horites.

According to the Torah account, the Lord had driven them out before the Edomites, descendants of Abraham, some time before the Exodus. Their ancestor is called Seir whose pre-Edomite descendants, "dukes of the Horites in the land of Seir", are listed in Gen. 36:20-29 and 1 Chronicles 1:38-42. Seir's own ancestry is never specified, but part of the genealogy corresponds with that given for Esau's Hivite wife in Gen. 36:2.