Lars Benedetto ( https://hibernate.atlassian.net/secure/ViewProfile.jspa?accountId=5bb1d56... ) *updated* an issue Hibernate ORM ( https://hibernate.atlassian.net/browse/HHH?atlOrigin=eyJpIjoiY2IzYTc1OTU0... ) / Bug ( https://hibernate.atlassian.net/browse/HHH-17017?atlOrigin=eyJpIjoiY2IzYT... ) HHH-17017 ( https://hibernate.atlassian.net/browse/HHH-17017?atlOrigin=eyJpIjoiY2IzYT... ) Hibernate 6 cannot read VARCHAR column as INT ( https://hibernate.atlassian.net/browse/HHH-17017?atlOrigin=eyJpIjoiY2IzYT... ) Change By: Lars Benedetto ( https://hibernate.atlassian.net/secure/ViewProfile.jspa?accountId=5bb1d56... ) [https://discourse.hibernate.org/t/hibernate-6-cannot-persist-enum-as-ordi...] As discussed in this thread, in Hibernate 6 if a column is VARCHAR, but actually contains integers meant to be mapped with  {{@Enumerated(value = EnumType.ORDINAL)}}  then you’ll get an exception caused by it using the char value of the int from the db as the ordinal index. So a 0 in the db becomes a 48. {noformat}java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: Index 48 out of bounds for length 2 at org.hibernate.type.descriptor.java.EnumJavaType.fromInteger(EnumJavaType.java:194) at org.hibernate.type.descriptor.java.EnumJavaType.fromOrdinal(EnumJavaType.java:211) at org.hibernate.type.descriptor.converter.internal.OrdinalEnumValueConverter.toDomainValue(OrdinalEnumValueConverter.java:40) at org.hibernate.type.descriptor.converter.internal.OrdinalEnumValueConverter.toDomainValue(OrdinalEnumValueConverter.java:23) {noformat} In Hibernate 5, this worked without issue. I have created a reproducer which I will link to in a few minutes [https://github. com/lbenedetto/HHH-17017-Issue-Reproducer|https://github.com/lbenedetto/H...] ( https://hibernate.atlassian.net/browse/HHH-17017#add-comment?atlOrigin=ey... ) Add Comment ( https://hibernate.atlassian.net/browse/HHH-17017#add-comment?atlOrigin=ey... ) Get Jira notifications on your phone! Download the Jira Cloud app for Android ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.atlassian.android.jira.... ) or iOS ( https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1006972087?pt=696495&ct=Em... ) This message was sent by Atlassian Jira (v1001.0.0-SNAPSHOT#100233- sha1:da16c62 )