Dor in the Bible — Hidden Meaning & Symbolism

Dor, dôr (Heb.)-- moving around in a circle; dwelling; inhabiting; a circle; an age: a generation."The heights of Dor" was a place in the land of Canaan that was allotted to the tribe of Manasseh, but from which they did not fully drive the Canaanites (Josh. 11:2; 17:11; Judg. 1:27). Meta. The Canaanites symbolize man's elemental life forces given over to the dominion of sense. Dor, a royal city of the Canaanites that came into the possession of the Israelitish tribe of Manasseh, pertains to the ability of man to abide in life (dwelling, inhabiting). The fact that Manasseh did not drive the Canaanites entirely from Dor (with the thought of an age, a generation) shows that at the stage of man's unfoldment represented by Dor the life forces are not redeemed fully from mortal tendencies. The higher understanding of the individual (Manasseh) is not allied to pure spiritual knowing strongly enough as yet to clear out of consciousness entirely the old established belief in time and in generation and in the brevity of life. Therefore for a time the error and the true dwell together (the Canaanites lived among the Israelites) and the individual goes round and round in a circle, living out one span of physical life and entering another, and making little or no apparent advancement. Constantly new, truer, higher ideas are needed that one may progress rapidly toward one's divine heritage of perfection.