Aner

The name Aner belongs both to a Canaanite confederate of Abram and to a Levitical city in the half-tribe of Manasseh.

A Confederate of Abram

In the war-of-the-kings narrative, Aner appears among Abram's allies near Mamre: "And there came one who had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew: now he stayed by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were confederate with Abram" (Ge 14:13). After the rescue of Lot and the meeting with the king of Sodom, Abram exempts his allies from his own refusal of spoil: "except only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their portion" (Ge 14:24).

A Levitical City in Manasseh

The same name attaches to one of the cities given to the rest of the family of Kohath out of the half-tribe of Manasseh: "and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Aner with its suburbs, and Bileam with its suburbs, for the rest of the family of the sons of Kohath" (1Ch 6:70).