Session session = sessionFactory.openSession(); Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction(); String hqlUpdate = "update Customer c set c.name = :newName where c.name = :oldName"; // or String hqlUpdate = "update Customer set name = :newName where name = :oldName"; int updatedEntities = s.createQuery( hqlUpdate ) .setString( "newName", newName ) .setString( "oldName", oldName ) .executeUpdate(); tx.commit(); session.close();