Avim
Fausset's Bible Dictionary [1]
Avims, Avites.
1. Properly AVVIM ( Deuteronomy 2:28). They had dwelt in Hazerim ("the villages," or nomad encampments, Chatzerim ), even unto Azzah (Gaza), i.e. S.W, of Palestine, the S. part of the Shephelah or lower hills of Judah (possibly having come thither from the southern desert). The Caplitorim out of Caphtor (i.e. the Philistines, Amos 9:7) supplanted them; and the latter appear in the plain of Sharon, just N. of the Shephelah . Compare the order of enumeration from S. to N. ( Joshua 13:2-3.) Gesenius interprets the name Avvim, "ruin." A trace of them may be in Avvim, a city of Benjamin ( Joshua 18:23), whither they may have been driven when the took refuge in the hills of Bethel. The Septuagint and Jerome identify them with the Hivites, in whose district was situated the Avvim city just mentioned. Compare Joshua 9:7; Joshua 9:17 with Joshua 18:22-27.
2. The people of AVVA who were planted by Assyria in Samaria; their idols were Nibhaz and Tartak ( 2 Kings 17:81).
Smith's Bible Dictionary [2]
A'vim. (Ruins). A'Vims or A'Vites.
1. A people among the early inhabitants of Palestine, whom we meet with in the southwest corner of the seacoast, whither they may have made their way north-ward from the desert, Deuteronomy 2:23, probably the same as the Hivites.
2. The people of Avva, among the colonists who were sent by the king of Assyria to reinhabit the depopulated cities of Israel. 2 Kings 17:31.
Holman Bible Dictionary [3]
Deuteronomy 2:23 2 Joshua 18:23
Easton's Bible Dictionary [4]
Deuteronomy 2:23 Joshua 13:3
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature [5]
A´vim, called also Avites and Hivites, a people descended from Canaan ( Genesis 10:17), who originally occupied the southernmost portion of that territory in Palestine along the Mediterranean coast, which the Caphtorim or Philistines afterwards possessed ( Deuteronomy 2:23). As the territory of the Avim is mentioned in Joshua 13:3, in addition to the five Philistine states, it would appear that it was not included in theirs, and that the expulsion of the Avim was by a Philistine invasion prior to that by which the five principalities were founded. The territory began at Gaza, and extended southward to 'the river of Egypt' ( Deuteronomy 2:23), forming what was the sole Philistine kingdom of Gerar in the time of Abraham, when we do not hear of any other Philistine states. There were then Avim, or Hivites, at Shechem ( Genesis 34:2), and we afterwards find them also at Gibeon ( Joshua 9:7), and beyond the Jordan, at the foot of Mount Hermon ( Joshua 11:3); but we have no means of knowing whether these were original settlements of the Avim, or were formed out of the fragments of the nation which the Philistines expelled from southern Palestine. The original country of the Avim is called Hazerim in Deuteronomy 2:23 [[[Gerar; Philistines]]]
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [6]
(Hebrews Avvim', with the article, הָעִוּים , The Ruins, or The Avvites' tower; Sept. Αὐίμ v. r. Αὐείν ), a city in the tribe of Benjamin, mentioned between Bethel and Parah ( Joshua 18:23). It may have been so named as having been settled by the Avites (q.v.) when expelled from Philistia, although it is uncertain whether they penetrated so far into the interior of the country (Keil, Comment. in loc.). The associated names afford a conjectural location eastward of Bethel, and it is possibly the same with AI (q v). (See Avite).
