AVVIM

(Avʹvim) [villagers, the ruins].

1. Early settlers in that part of the land of Canaan that lay westward toward Gaza. Forty years after the exodus, Moses told how, for the most part, these Avvim had been dispossessed by the Caphtorim. (Deut. 2:23) Shortly before Joshua’s death, in about the middle of the fifteenth century B.C.E., a remnant of the Avvim still remained.—Josh. 13:1, 3.

2. A city of Benjamin, listed between Bethel and Parah at Joshua 18:21-23. It may have been populated by remaining members of the tribe of the Avvim. F.-M. Abel (Géographie de la Palestine, Vol. II, p. 257) identifies it with Khirbet Haiyan SE of Bethel.