Luz

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

LUZ. 1.  Genesis 28:19;   Genesis 35:6;   Genesis 48:3 ,   Joshua 16:2;   Joshua 18:13 ,   Judges 1:23-26 . The exact locality is uncertain, and a comparison of the above passages will show that it is also uncertain whether Luz and Bethel were one or two sites. In   Genesis 28:19 it is stated that Jacob changed the name of the place of his vision from Luz to Bethel (cf. also   Genesis 35:6 ,   Judges 1:23 ). The two passages in Joshua, however, seem to contradict this; both of them speak of Luz and Bethel as two distinct places. A possible solution is that Luz was the name of the old Canaanite city, and Bethel the pillar and altar of Jacob outside the city. 2. Luz is also the name of a city built on Hittite territory after the destruction of the original Canaanite city (  Judges 1:26 ).

T. A. Moxon.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Luz. (Almond Tree). It seems impossible to discover with precision whether Luz and Bethel represent one and the same town - the former the Canannite, the latter the Hebrew, name - or whether they were distinct places, though in close proximity. The most probable conclusion is that, the two places were, during the times preceding the conquest, distinct, Luz being the city and Bethel the pillar and altar of Jacob that, after the destruction of Luz by the tribe of Ephraim, the town of Bethel arose.

When the original Luz was destroyed, through the treachery of one of its inhabitants, the man who had introduced the Israelites into the town went into the "land of the Hittites" and built a city which he named after the former one.  Judges 1:28. Its situation, as well as that of the "land of the Hittites," has never been discovered, and is one of the favorable puzzles of Scripture geographers.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Luz (Lŭz ), Almond Tree. 1. The Canaanite name for the place in which Jacob rested and had a prophetic vision, and afterward the city of Bethel; now Beitin.  Genesis 28:19;  Genesis 35:6;  Genesis 48:3;  Joshua 16:2;  Joshua 18:13;  Judges 1:23. 2. A city in the land of the Hittites, built by an inhabitant of the original Luz, who was spared when the city was sacked,  Judges 1:23; now Luweizîyeh, four miles northwest of Banias.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

A place in the land of the Hittites, founded (  Judges 1:26 ) by "a man who came forth out of the city of Luz." It is identified with Luweiziyeh, 4 miles north-west of Banias.

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Luz'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/l/luz.html. 1897.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

(See Bethel .) Luz was originally the city, Bethel the pillar and altar of Jacob; in  Genesis 12:8 it is called Bethel by anticipation ( Genesis 28:19), after Ephraim's conquest the town Bethel arose. The nearness of the two accounts for their being identified in all eases where there was no special reason for distinguishing them. After one of the townsmen of ancient Luz had betrayed it to Israel he went into "the land of the Hittites," and built a city of the same name ( Judges 1:23-26). Answering to Khirbet Lozeh, close to Beitin.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The ancient name of a part at least of Bethel,  Genesis 28:19   John 16:2   18:13; afterwards given to a smaller place founded by a refugee from Bethel,  Judges 1:26 . See Bethel,  Judges 1:26 . See Bethel .

Morrish Bible Dictionary

1. City of the Canaanites, afterwards called BETHEL, q.v.

2. City in the land of the Hittites, built by the man who had betrayed the city in Canaan, and who called it after the same name.   Judges 1:26 . Identified by some with ruins at el Luweiziyeh, 33 16' N, 35 36' E .

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 28:19Bethel Joshua 16:2  Judges 1:26

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The original spot called afterwards "Bethel, the house of God." ( Genesis 28:19) Luz seems to have meant separation.

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) A bone of the human body which was supposed by certain Rabbinical writers to be indestructible. Its location was a matter of dispute.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. id. לוּז, a nut-bearing tree, either the almond or hazel, as in  Genesis 30:37 [but according to Fü rst, after Hiller, Sinking , as of a valley]; Sept. Λουζά, but in  Genesis 28:19 unites with the preceding word Οὐλαμλούζ ), the name of two places.

1. The ancient name of the Canaanitish city on or near the site of Bethel ( Genesis 28:19;  Genesis 35:6;  Genesis 48:3), on the border of Benjamin ( Joshua 18:13); taken and destroyed, with all its inhabitants (except one family that had acted as spies), by the descendants of Joseph ( Judges 1:23). The spot to which the name of Bethel was given appears, however, to have been at a little distance in the environs of Luz, and they are accordingly distinguished in  Joshua 16:2, although the Heb. name of Bethel eventually superseded the Canaanitish one Luz; or rather, perhaps, Luz was the name of a locality near which Bethel was afterwards built. The form of the name in the Sept., Eusebius, and the Vulg. seems to have been derived from  Joshua 18:13, where the words אֶלאּכֶּתֶ לוּזָה should, according to ordinary usage, be rendered "to the shoulder of Luzah;" the Ah , which is the particle of motion in Hebrew, not being required here, as it is in the former part of the same verse. Other names are found both with and without a similar termination, as Jotbah, Jotbathah; Timnath, Timnathah; Riblah, Riblathah, Laish and Laishah are probably distinct places. Van de Velde is confident that he has recovered the site of Luz in the modern ruins called Khurbet el-Lozeh, one hour and a half west of Beth-el (Notes to the 2d ed. of his Map, page 16). (See Bethel).

2. A small place in the district of the Hittites, founded by an inhabitant of the former Luz, who was spared on the destruction of this place by the tribe of Benjamin ( Judges 1:26); and this seems to dispose of the identification with the ruins still found on Matthew Gerizim (Stanley, page 231 sq.), bearing the name of Luza (Seetzen, Reise, 1:174; Wilson, 2:69), about ten minutes beyond the trench of the Samaritan sacrifice (Van de Velde, Memoir, page 331). Schwarz thinks the site may be identified with that of wady Luzacn, in the interior of the desert of et-Tih, north-west of Jebel el-Aralf, (on the strength of the Talmudic statement that this place lay without the bounds of Palestine (Palest. page 213). This is doubtless the wady Lussan described by Dr. Robinson as a broad plain swept over by torrents from the mountains on the right, destitute of any fountain or water, and containing only a few remains of rude walls and foundations, which he regards as the traces of the Roman station Lysa along this route (Researches, 1:276, 277). Rosenmü ller (Alterth. II, 2:129) refers the name to Luza, a city, according to Eusebius (Onomast. s.v.), lying three miles from Shlechem; but this could not have been Hittite territory. Studer (Buch d. Richter, page 45) adopts a suggestion of D. Kimchi, that a city of the Phoenicians (Kittim, so Eusebius, Κεττείμ, Onomast. s.v. 2) is meant. Probably it was some place near Hebron, in southern Palestine, where the Hittites were settled. (See Hittite).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

( לוּז , lūz ):The Hebrew word means "almond tree" or "almond wood" ( Ohl , under the word). It may also mean "bone," particularly a bone of the spine, and might be applied to a rocky height supposed to resemble a backbone (Lagarde, Uebersicht ., 157 f). Winckler explains it by Aramaic laudh , "asylum," which might be suitably applied to a sanctuary ( Geschichte Israels ). Cheyne ( Eb , under the word) would derive it by corruption from חלצה , ḥălucāh , "strong (city)."

(1) This was the ancient name of Bethel ( Genesis 28:19;  Judges 1:23; compare  Genesis 35:6;  Genesis 48:3;  Joshua 16:2;  Joshua 18:13 ). It has been thought that  Joshua 16:2 contradicts this, and that the two places were distinct. Referring to   Genesis 28:19 , we find that the name Bethel was given to "the place," ha - māḳōm , i.e. "the sanctuary," probably "the place" ( Genesis 28:11 , Hebrew) associated with the sacrifice of Abraham ( Genesis 12:8 ), which lay to the East of Bethel. The name of the city as distinguished from "the place" was Luz. As the fame of the sanctuary grew, we may suppose, its name overshadowed, and finally superseded, that of the neighboring town. The memory of the ancient nomenclature persisting among the people sufficiently explains the allusions in the passages cited.

(2) A B ethelite, the man who betrayed the city into the hands of the children of Joseph, went into the land of the Hittites, and there founded a city which he called Luz, after the ancient name of his native place ( Judges 1:26 ). No satisfactory identification has been suggested.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

The ancient name of Bethel [BETHEL]. The spot to which the name of Bethel was given appears, however, to have been at a little distance in the environs of Luz, and they are accordingly distinguished in , although the name of Bethel was eventually extended to that town. A small place of the same name, founded by an inhabitant of this Luz, is mentioned in .