Heth was a son of Canaan and a grandson of Ham. He is regarded as the ancestor of the Hittites (the children of Heth), a people who lived in the land of Canaan and with whom the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac had contact. The Hittites played an important role in the biblical accounts concerning the land of Canaan.
Abraham's negotiations with 'the children of Heth' (the Hittites) regarding the purchase of the burial site in the Cave of Machpelah show that Heth's descendants were an established people in Canaan.
16Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms and weighed out for him the silver he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the merchants' weight.
Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham in the Cave of Machpelah, which had been purchased from the children of Heth, confirming the lasting connection between the patriarchs and the Hittites.
Esau took wives from among the daughters of Heth, which was a source of grief for Isaac and Rebekah. This shows the close contact between Abraham's descendants and the Hittites.
46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from the Hittite women, such as these, from the daughters of this land, what good is my life to me?"
As a descendant of Ham through Canaan, Heth and his descendants were part of the curse that Noah pronounced over Canaan. The Hittites are later mentioned among the peoples whom Israel was to drive out from the promised land.
8So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
17And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.'