Where is the biblical city of Luz located?

Luz was an ancient city in the region of Samaria, in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. Its modern location is identified with the village of Beitin, north of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

What happened at Luz in the Bible?

Luz is primarily known as the place where Jacob had his famous dream of a ladder reaching to heaven, after which he renamed the site Bethel (Genesis 28:19). It was later conquered by the tribe of Ephraim (Judges 1:23-26).

What is the significance of Luz in the Bible?

Luz is significant because its renaming to Bethel ('House of God') marked it as a major site of divine encounter and worship for the patriarchs. It became a central religious location for the Israelites, though it was later associated with idolatry (1 Kings 12:28-30).

Luz

cityOld TestamentSamaria6 verses

Today BeitinCountry IsraelCoordinates 31.923, 35.241

Luz is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Samaria in modern-day Israel. Known today as Beitin. It appears across 6 verses in Scripture.

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Archaeological Data

Occupation Phases

Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age IA4500 BCE – 3300 BCE

Early Bronze Age I3800 BCE – 3050 BCE

Early Bronze Age IV/Middle Bronze Age I/Int. Bronze2500 BCE – 2000 BCE

Middle Bronze Age I2000 BCE – 1750 BCE

Middle Bronze Age II-III1750 BCE – 1550 BCE

Late Bronze Age II1400 BCE – 1200 BCE

Late Bronze Age III1200 BCE – 1150 BCE

Iron Age I1150 BCE – 980 BCE

Iron Age IIa-b980 BCE – 720 BCE

Iron Age II980 BCE – 539 BCE

Iron Age IIb-c830 BCE – 539 BCE

Iron Age IIb830 BCE – 720 BCE

Iron Age IIc720 BCE – 539 BCE

Iron Age III-Hellenistic539 BCE – 63 BCE

Iron Age III (Persian)539 BCE – 333 BCE

Hellenistic333 BCE – 63 BCE

Roman63 BCE – 324 CE

Byzantine324 CE – 638 CE

UnitoAssyrianGovernance, Villages to Empires Dataset (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732Uppsala University, ANE Site Placemarks (CC BY 4.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.6384044

Biblical History

Luz is the ancient Canaanite name for the city later known as Bethel, one of the most theologically significant sites in all of Scripture. The city first appears when Abraham pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai after entering Canaan, building an altar and calling on the name of the LORD (Genesis 12:8; 13:3). Its transformation from Luz to Bethel occurred when Jacob, fleeing from Esau, slept at this place and dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven with angels ascending and descending upon it. God renewed the Abrahamic covenant with Jacob there, and Jacob named the place Bethel, meaning "house of God" (Genesis 28:19). God later commanded Jacob to return to Bethel, where He appeared again and confirmed Jacob's new name, Israel (Genesis 35:6-15). Joshua records that Luz was the former name of Bethel (Joshua 16:2; 18:13). The renaming of Luz to Bethel thus marks one of Scripture's great turning points, where a Canaanite settlement became consecrated ground through divine revelation and covenantal promise.

Archaeological & Historical Notes

Luz-Bethel has traditionally been identified with the modern village of Beitin, located approximately 17 kilometers north of Jerusalem in the central hill country. Excavations by William F. Albright in 1927 and 1934, followed by James L. Kelso in the 1950s and 1960s, uncovered occupation layers spanning from the Middle Bronze Age through the Byzantine period. Evidence of a significant destruction layer from the late thirteenth century BCE has been associated by some scholars with the Israelite conquest. An alternative identification with el-Bireh, proposed by David Livingston, has gained some support but remains a minority view. The site at Beitin yielded Canaanite cultic installations, Iron Age structures, and evidence of the prosperous settlement described in biblical narratives.

Verse Appearances (6)

References

Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]

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