Luz ( ''Lūz'') is the name of two places in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

Mentioned in Genesis

Luz is the ancient name of a royal

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

ite city, connected with

Bethel Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite sanc ...

(

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

28:19; 35:6). It is debated among scholarsRashi on 28:17 whether Luz and Bethel represent the same town - the former the Canaanite name, and the latter the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

name - or whether they were distinct places in close proximity to each other. According to the King James Version (KJV), Luz was renamed by Jacob: "And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.” (

28:19)

Mentioned in Book of Judges

A second city called Luz, founded by a man who came from the original Luz, is mentioned in

Judges A judge is an official who presides over a court. Judge or Judges may also refer to: Roles *Judge, an alternative name for an adjudicator in a competition in theatre, music, sport, etc. *Judge, an alternative name/aviator call sign for a membe ...

1:23:

²²And the house of Joseph, they also went up against Beth-el; and the LORD was with them. ²³ And the house of Joseph sent to spy out Beth-el—now the name of the city beforetime was Luz. ²⁴ And the watchers saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said unto him: 'Show us, we pray thee, the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with thee.' ²⁵ And he showed them the entrance into the city, and they smote the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man go and all his family. ²⁶ And the man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the name thereof Luz, which is the name thereof unto this day.

This second Luz is identified by some with

Wazzani Al Wazzani (Al-Ouazzani), also known as Arab Louaize or Aarab El Louaizeh,Water Wars in the Middle East: A Looming Threat, Hussein A. Amery, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 168, 2002 is a small Lebanese village in the Hasbaya District of the Naba ...

(or, ''Louaize''), four miles northwest of

Banias Banias or Banyas ( ar, بانياس الحولة; he, בניאס, label=Modern Hebrew; Judeo-Aramaic, Medieval Hebrew: פמייס, etc.; grc, Πανεάς) is a site in the Golan Heights near a natural spring, once associated with the Greek g ...

, in the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

References

{{Reflist Torah cities