Bible Location
Meaning: separation; departure; an almond · 6 cross references · Modern-day map available
Luz was the older Canaanite name of the site later known as Bethel in the central hill country. It is important because it preserves the pre-Israelite identity of the place where Jacob encountered God and because it helps connect Bethel's later history to its earlier setting. First appears in Gen 28:19.1
AI summary: Luz matters because it shows that Bethel had a story before it became one of Israel's great sacred names. In Genesis the renaming of Luz to Bethel turns the site into a place of revelation, vow, and covenant memory through Jacob's encounters with God. The later boundary references then keep the site rooted in real territory rather than leaving it only in patriarchal memory. The cross references present Luz as the older identity of Bethel, a place transformed from Canaanite city into a landmark of divine encounter.1
The ancient name of a royal Canaanitish city near the site of Bethel (Gen. 28:19; 35:6), on the border of Benjamin (Josh. 18:13). Here Jacob halted, and had a prophetic vision. (See BETHEL.) 3
AI-assisted summary prepared for ai-BIBLE and stored as page content, based on dictionary material, place metadata, and linked Bible cross references.
Alistair de Blacquiere-Clarkson, “ai-BIBLE Bible Names JSON Factsheet Aggregating Material from Smith’s Bible Dictionary & Hitcocks’s New and Complete Analysis of the Bible.” ai-BIBLE electronic edition, version 1.0.
M.G.Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ai-BIBLE electronic edition, version 1.0.
Robert Rouse, “Theographic Bible Information,” Theographic-Bible-Metadata, 2020, https://github.com/robertrouse/theographic-bible-metadata.