hamor Summary and Overview

he-ass, a Hivite from whom Jacob purchased the plot of ground in which Joseph was afterwards buried (Gen. 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 (Gen. 34:20). Hamor and Shechem were also slain (ver. 26).

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

HA'MOR (ass), the father of Shechem, who ravished Dinah, Gen 33:19. He was killed by Jacob's sons, Gen 34:26. He is called Emmor in Acts 7:16.

("a large he-ass".) So (Genesis 49:14) Issachar. A Hivite; but Alex. manuscript, Septuagint, a Horite; prince of Shechem and the adjoining district, probably named from his son. Head of the clan named from him while yet alive "the children of Hamor." (Genesis 33:19.) From them Jacob bought for 100 kesita (i.e. bars or rings of silver of a certain weight, perhaps stamped with a "lamb," see margin, all the versions translated "lambs," which were the original representative of wealth) a parcel of a field. Abraham bought only a burying place, Jacob a dwelling place, which long after was also Joseph's burial place (Joshua 24:32) referred to by Stephen (Acts 7:16). "Jacob and our fathers were carried over into Sychem and laid in a sepulchre that Abraham bought ... of the sons of EMMOR" (the Greek form of Hamor).

Stephen with elliptical brevity sums up from six chaps, of Old Testament in one sentence the double purchase (by Abraham from Ephron the Hittite, Genesis 23; and by Jacob from the children of Hamor), the double burial place (Abraham's cave of Machpelah and Jacob's ground near Shechem), and the double burial (of Jacob in the cave of Machpelah, and of Joseph in the ground at Shechem), just because the details were familiar to both himself and the Jewish council; not, as rationalism objects, because he was ignorant of or forgot the historical facts so notorious from the Old Testament. In Judges 9:28 Hamor's name is made to Shechemites the signal of revolt from Israelite rule. The cruel retaliation by Simeon and Levi of Shechem's wrong to Dinah (Genesis 34) left a lasting soreness in the minds of the Hivite remnant, who even without such ancient grudge would be ready enough to cast off Israel's yoke and revert to their original government by Hivite sheikhs. (See GAAL.)