Luzah

LUZAH (Hebrew Láz "Almond", Septuagint Ἀουζά). - Original name of a Canaanite locality, about 17 km north of Jerusalem, to which the name Bethel (v.) or "house of God" was later given in memory of the vision of the ladder and the Angels that Jacob had there while traveling from Beersheba to Haran (Gen. 28:11-28). It was situated almost in the center of Palestine, and in the division of the Promised Land it came to lie on the borders of the tribes of Ephraim and Benjamin (cf. Josh. 16:1 ff.; 8:3).

Here Abraham had erected an altar and called upon the name of Yahweh (Gen. 12:8; 13:3-4): Jacob erected another stone marker in memory of the vision he had had and of the divine apparition, which he later recalled upon his return from Haran with a solemn rite, receiving confirmation of the promises already made to him by the Lord. Probably on this occasion the name of L. was changed to that of Bethel (cf. Gen. 35:1-15), famous in the history of Israel.

The same name L. was given to a city in the land of the Hittites, built following the Israelite occupation of L. Bethel by a Canaanite who had shown the way to the Hebrews to take possession of that city: left free with his family, he went away to the land of the Hittites and there founded a city to which he gave the name L. (cf. Judg. 1:22-26).