Hamor (Heb. Jamôr, “ass”; Gr. Hemmor). Hivit* prince of the city of Shechem, from whom the sons of Jacob bought a property in which Joseph’s bones were later buried (Jos 24:32; Act 7:16). Hamor and Shechem, his son, were killed by Simeon and Levi, sons of Jacob, because Shechem had raped Dinah, Jacob’s daughter (Gen 34: 1-31; Jdg 9:28).
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
(Heb., hamor, an ass). Shechem’s father, the one who criminally assaulted Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. As a result, both father and son were killed in revenge by Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers (Gen 34:1-31).
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
(Donkey, donkey). Canaanite main character, father of Shechem. When Jacob returned from Padan-aram † œhe bought a part of the field, where he pitched his tent, from the sons of H. † near the city of Shechem, and built there † œan altar, and called it El-Elohe- Israel † (Gen 33:18-20). But †œShechem, son of H. Hivite, prince of that land† raped †¢Dina, daughter of Jacob, for which Simeon and Levi killed †œH. and to Shechem his son † (Gen 34: 1-31). When the Israelites returned from Egypt, “they buried the bones of Joseph at Shechem…in the part of the field that Jacob bought from the sons of H. father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money” (Jos 24:32).
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
tip, KING BIOG HOMB HOAT
vet, “big ass.” Shechemite prince (Gen. 34:20; Josh. 24:32; Judg. 9:28); he was hive. His son Shechem seduced Dinah. Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, avenged her by killing Hamor and Shechem, and carrying out a general massacre in their city (Gen. 34:1-31), leaving no male alive.
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
(Donkey).
Chief Hivite, father of Shechem. Jacob bought a piece of land from the sons of Hamor, on which he camped and later erected an altar. After Shechem raped Jacob’s daughter Dinah, Simeon and Levi murdered him along with Jacob’s father Hamor in revenge for that act. (Ge 33:18-20; 34:1, 2, 25, 26)
Source: Dictionary of the Bible
“Donkey”, see below. Ruler of Shechem at the time of Jacob (Gen. 33.19–34.31), from whose citizens (lit. “sons, common sem. usage, cf. inf.) he bought a plot of land (Gen., see above citation; Jos 24.32). Both Hamor and his son Shechem fell in the slaughter carried out by Levi and Simeon among the Shechemite men, which was followed by the pillage of the city, as revenge for the humiliation of his sister * Dinah. In the period of the judges the name Hamor was still associated with Shechem (Judg. 9.28). In the NT, in his dramatic message to the council, Stephen links Abraham’s purchase of the cave of Machpelah with Jacob’s acquisition of the lot at Shechem: a realistic demonstration of the rapid movement of Stephen’s impromptu exposition of Israel’s history, and not an error of Lucas (Hch. 7.16).
Animal names used for people, such as Hamor, “ass,” were common in biblical times and lands. Cf. Meranum (“cub”), name of a physician in the Mari tables of patriarchal times (Bottéro and Finet, Archivcs Royales de Mari, 15, 1954, pp. 152, refs.; compare Mendenhall, BASOR 133, 1954, pp. 26, no. 3). Egypt also offers many examples.
The act of killing an ass was sometimes part of the making of a pact (Mendenhall, op. cit.), but interpreting the phrase “sons of Hamor” as meaning “members of a confederacy”—as suggested by Albright, Archeology and the Religion of Israel, 1953, p. 113– is unnecessary. “Son” of a place or person often meant simply being a citizen of that place, or a member of the tribal group of the person mentioned. Cf. the usual phrase “sons of Israel”, “daughter of Jerusalem”, as well as the Assyrian usage.
K.A.K.
Douglas, J. (2000). New Biblical Dictionary: First Edition. Miami: United Bible Societies.
Source: New Bible Dictionary