🔼The name Dor: Summary
- Meaning
- Habitation
- Etymology
- From the verb דור (dur), to dwell.
🔼The name Dor in the Bible
Dor is the name of a city fittingly located in the heights of Dor, in the highlands of Canaan. When Jabin, king of Hazor, receives word of the fall of Jericho and Ai and Israel's victory over the Amorites, he musters a large group of his colleague kings from all over the place, including the heights of Dor (Joshua 11:2). But Joshua and his army attack them at the waters of Merom and defeat them entirely.
When Canaan is divided, the area of Dor and its towns come to be situated in the territories assigned to the tribes of Issachar and Asher, but the actual town of Dor befalls Manasseh (Joshua 17:11). The men of Manasseh, however, fail to take possession of Dor, and the indigenous inhabitants remain there (Joshua 17:12). Later, Israel grows strong enough to subdue the Canaanites anyway and make them slaves (Judges 1:28).
This name is spelled דור in Joshua 11:2 and 12:23, Judges 1:23 and 1 Chronicles 7:29. It's spelled דאר in Joshua 17:11 and 1 Kings 4:11.
🔼Etymology of the name Dor
The name Dor appears to be derived from the verb דור (dur), meaning to dwell:
דור
The verb דרר (darar) means to flow freely. Noun דרור (deror) means freedom.
The verb נדר (nadar) means to vow, and noun נדר (neder) means a vow.
The verb דור (dur) means to heap or pile, also in the sense of concentrating one's activities, and thus: to dwell. Noun דור (dur) means circle, ball or heap. Noun דור (dor) or דר (dor) means period, age, generation or habitation. Noun מדורה (medura) means pile.
🔼Dor meaning
For a meaning of the name Dor, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names read Habitation. BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't translate our name but does list it under the root דור.