The Hebrew People

Any member of an ancient northern Semitic people that were the ancestors of the Jews. Historians use the term Hebrews to designate the descendants of the patriarchs of the Old Testament (Abraham and Isaac and so on) from that period until their conquest of Canaan (Palestine) in the late 2nd millennium BC. Thenceforth these people are referred to as Israelites until their return from the Babylonian Exile in the late 6th century BC from which time on they became known as Jews ...

The Hebrew Language

Semitic language used in Israel principally by Jews. Hebrew is categorized as a part of the Canaanite group of the Semitic languages -- to which also the ancient languages Phoenician and Moabite belonged. The Hebrew of today is a spoken language that is based upon the written Hebrew from old Hebrew texts and is the only colloquial speech in the world based on a written language

The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium