Avites

The name covers two distinct populations in the Hebrew narrative — an indigenous nation in the southern coastland of Canaan, and a group of foreign colonists resettled in Samaria after the Assyrian deportations. UPDV renders the older national name as "Avvim" and the later colonist group as "Avvites."

A Pre-Philistine Nation in Southern Canaan

The Avvim are remembered as villagers who once held the southern coastal strip down to Gaza, before being displaced by another incoming people: "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" (Deut 2:23).

By the time of the conquest under Joshua, the Avvim still appear in the catalogue of unconquered land along the Philistine coast, listed alongside the lordships of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron: "from the Shihor, which is before Egypt, even to the border of Ekron northward, [which] is reckoned to the Canaanites; the five lords of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avvim," (Josh 13:3).

Colonists Resettled in Samaria

A separate use of the name appears after the fall of the northern kingdom, when the Assyrian king repopulates the territory with imported peoples who bring their own gods. Among them: "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).

These Avvite settlers are paired in the text with Sepharvaim deportees and identified by the deities they install — Nibhaz and Tartak — distinct from the gods of the other transplanted populations.