LUZ luz (ל֥וּז, almond tree). 1. The more ancient (Canaanite) name of the city of Bethel (Gen 28:19; 35:6). It was changed to Bethel (House of God) by Jacob after the Lord appeared to him in a dream during his flight from home. It became a holy place in the later history of Israel. According to the citations in Genesis, Luz is indistinguishable from Bethel but Joshua (16:2), in delineating the S boundary of Ephraim and Manasseh, speaks of it as going out “from Bethel to Luz,” apparently regarding the two as distinct locations. It is possible that this reflects a distinction between the city and the holy place which may have been close by. More prob., however, the reference is not to the city of Bethel but to a mountain range closely associated with the city which is mentioned as the previous boundary point (v. 1) and from which the line went out to Luz (the city of Bethel). In Joshua 18:13, which records the delineation of the boundary of the territory of Benjamin, Bethel and Luz are regarded as identical.

The city continued to be known as Luz to the Canaanite inhabitants until the time of the Judges (Judg 1:23-26).

2. A Hitt. town, yet unknown, which was built by a former inhabitant of Luz in Canaan and apparently named after that city. At the destruction of Luz (Bethel) by the Benjamites, he was shown mercy and went to the land of the Hittites.

Bibliography F. M. Abel, Geographie de la Palestine, II (1938), 371; J. Simons, The Geographical and Topographical Texts of the Old Testament (1959).