Avim

The name Avim (also rendered Avvim) refers both to a Benjaminite town in the tribal allotments and to an ancient people who once occupied the southern coastal plain of Canaan.

A Town of Benjamin

Among the cities assigned to the tribe of Benjamin in Joshua's division of the land, Avvim appears in a cluster of settlements in the hill-country region: "and Avvim, and Parah, and Ophrah" (Jos 18:23). The verse preserves the name as part of a border-and-city inventory, locating the site within Benjamin's inheritance without further description.

An Ancient People of the Southern Plain

Before the Philistine presence dominated the coast, the Avvim inhabited the southern lowlands stretching toward Gaza. Deuteronomy preserves a notice that their occupation ended violently: "and the Avvim, who dwelt in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead" (De 2:23). The Caphtorim displaced them entirely, so that by the time of the conquest the Avvim no longer held their original territory.

At the opening of Joshua's campaigns, the Avvim are still listed among the peoples of the southern coastal region that remained unconquered — grouped alongside the Philistine city-lords and other Canaanite populations: "also the Avvim" (Jos 13:3). Their mention here signals that despite the earlier Caphtorim displacement, the Avvim survived as a recognizable ethnic or geographic designation in the region's administrative geography.

Avvite Colonists in Samaria

After the Assyrian deportation of the northern kingdom, foreign peoples were settled in Samaria. Among them were Avvites, who brought their own religious practices: "and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their sons in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim" (2Ki 17:31). The Avvites are distinguished from the Sepharvites in the same verse, each group contributing its own gods to the religious mixture that characterized post-deportation Samaria.