An early people of Mount Seir
The Bible first mentions the Horites when a group of eastern kings attacked people living in and around Canaan. The Horites were struck in their territory, Mount Seir, a rugged region associated later with Edom (Genesis 14:6).
Genesis 36 makes the connection clearer. It calls Seir the Horite and presents the Horites as the original inhabitants of that land. Later, Esau settled in Mount Seir, so the same place became closely tied to his family (Genesis 36:20; Genesis 36:8). The Bible does not give a detailed description of Horite language, customs, or appearance. Its concern is mainly their place in the story of the land and its peoples.
These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah,
A recorded family line
The Horites were not simply a nameless group in the background. Genesis preserves a family record for them, naming the sons of Seir and the chiefs who came from those family branches (Genesis 36:20-21; Genesis 36:29-30). In the ancient world, such records showed who belonged to a people and who held recognised leadership.
That detail also helps readers follow the setting of Genesis. Before Edom became the land associated with Esau's descendants, Mount Seir already had established families and leaders. Scripture treats those earlier inhabitants as real people with a history, even though their story is told only briefly.
What happened to them?
Moses later explained that the Horites had lived in Seir before Esau's descendants arrived. The children of Esau dispossessed them, destroyed them from before them, and settled in their place. This is how the Bible describes the change from Horite control of Seir to Edomite possession of it (Deuteronomy 2:12).
The passage places this within God's wider ordering of nations and territories. Israel was told not to seize Edom's land, because God had given Mount Seir to Esau's descendants as their possession (Deuteronomy 2:5). That doesn't make the Horites the main focus of the biblical story, but it explains why they appear in the background of Edom's beginnings.
The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them.
Why their brief story matters
The Horites remind us that the Bible's family histories are often also histories of places. When Genesis traces Esau's line and Deuteronomy describes Israel's journey, it pays attention to the peoples already living in the lands involved. Mount Seir had a past before it became Edom.
If you're reading through Genesis, the Horites can seem like a small detail. Still, their names help locate Esau's family in a real setting and show how the Bible connects generations, lands, and nations across its larger story. Reading Genesis 36 alongside Deuteronomy 2 gives the clearest picture.