Hamor

he-ass, a Hivite from whom Jacob purchased the plot of ground in which Joseph was afterwards buried ( Genesis 33:19 ). He is called "Emmor" in Acts 7:16 . His son Shechem founded the city of that name which Simeon and Levi destroyed because of his crime in the matter of Dinah, Jacob's daughter ( Genesis 34:20 ). Hamor and Shechem were also slain (ver. 26).

an ass; clay; dirt

(an ass ), a Hivite who at the time of the entrance of Jacob on Palestine was prince of the land and city of Shechem. ( Genesis 33:19 ; Genesis 34:2 Genesis 34:4 Genesis 34:6 Genesis 34:8 Genesis 34:13 Genesis 34:18 Genesis 34:20 Genesis 34:24 Genesis 34:26 ) (B.C. 1737.) [DINAH]

HAMOR

ha'-mor (chamor, "an ass"; Emmor):

Hamor was the father of Shechem from whom Jacob bought a piece of ground on his return from Paddan-aram for one hundred pieces of silver (Genesis 33:19), and the burial place of Joseph when his body was removed from Egypt to Canaan (Joshua 24:32). "The men of Hamor" were inhabitants of Shechem, and suffered a great loss under Abimelech, a prince over Israel (Judges 9:22-49). Dinah, Jacob's daughter, was criminally treated by Hamor, who requested her to be given to him in marriage, in which plan he had the cooperation of his father, Shechem. The sons of Jacob rejected their proposition and laid a scheme by which the inhabitants of the city were circumcised, and in the hour of helplessness slew all the males, thus wreaking special vengeance upon Hamor and his father Shechem. It is mere conjecture to claim that Hamor and Dinah were personifications of early central Palestinian clans in sharp antagonism, and that the course of Simeon and Levi was really the treachery of primitive tribes. Because the word Hamor means "an ass" and Shechem "a shoulder," there is no reason for rejecting the terms as designations of individuals and considering the titles as mere tribal appellations.

Byron H. Dement