Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 1:23
And the house of Joseph sent to descry Bethel. (Now the name of the city before [was] Luz.)
23. sent to spy out Beth-el ] lit. made a reconnaissance at B. Perhaps we should read ‘encamped against B.,’ as LXX and Vulgate imply.
Now the name Luz ] A gloss, as in Gen 28:19; cf. ib. Gen 35:6, Gen 48:3, Jos 18:13 P. In Jos 16:2 JE the two places are distinguished, ‘from Beth-el to Luz’; but the text is uncertain, and in the LXX the two are usually identified. Luz is supposed to mean ‘almond-tree’; more suggestively Winckler proposes ‘asylum,’ from the Arab ldha ‘to seek a refuge’ ( Gesch. Isr. 2:65 f.). If the latter is right, Luz may have been a sanctuary before it became famous under the name of Beth-el. According to JE the place was called Beth-el because Jacob set up a stone there after his vision when he fled from Esau (Gen 28:10-22); according to P, because God appeared to him there when he returned from Paddan-aram (Gen 35:9-15).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 23. Beth-el – the name of the city before was Luz.] Concerning this city and its names, See Clarke on Ge 28:19.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And the house of Joseph sent to descry Bethel,…. To reconnoitre the place, to observe its passes and avenues, which were most accessible, and to examine the walls of it, where they were weakest and least defended:
now the name of the city before [was] Luz; which signifies a “nut”; perhaps it was so called from large numbers of nut trees which grew near it; the Jews suggest as if it was like a nut, no entrance into it but through a cave or some subterraneous passage, see Ge 28:19.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(23) To descry Beth-el.The word perhaps implies a regular siege, and it is so understood by the LXX. (Cod. Alex.) and the Vulgate.
Luz.We are also told that this was the original name of the city in Gen. 28:19; but there seems to be in that verse a distinction between the city and the place of Jacobs dream. (Comp. Jos. 16:2.) The name means either hazel, or sinking, i.e., a valley depression.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
23. Sent to descry Or, they reconnoitred. They set a secret watch against Beth-el, to obtain such information as would enable them most easily to capture the city.
Luz Cassel distinguishes between Beth-el and Luz as follows: “As Jebus and Jerusalem are always identified, so it is everywhere remarked of Beth-el that it was formerly Luz; and as Jebus indicated particularly the fortress, Jerusalem the city although the latter name also embraced both so a similar relation must be assumed to have existed between Beth-el and Luz. The latter was evidently a fortress high and strong, whose city descended along the mountain slope.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ And the house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. Now the name of the city was previously Luz ’
Scouts were sent out to weigh up the situation and bring back information that would aid in the attack. The fact that Yahweh was with them did not excuse them from sensible behaviour.
“Now the name of the city was previously Luz.” Bethel was the name given to the area by Jacob and later applied to the city by Israel. But the Canaanites called it Luz (Gen 28:19; Gen 35:6; Gen 48:3).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Bethel is a memorable name in scripture, ever since the Patriarch Jacob made it so. All true believers in Jesus know this name, and can tell, as Jacob did, what Bethel visits mean. Reader! was not that spot, that place, a true Bethel, or house of God to your soul, when the visions of God first began ‘) See Gen 28:19 ; Exo 3:2-6 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jdg 1:23 And the house of Joseph sent to descry Bethel. (Now the name of the city before [was] Luz.)
Ver. 23. Now the name of the city before was Luz, ] i.e., An almond, or a filbert; perhaps from the plenty of such fruits there growing: like as Cerasus in Pontus had its name from cherries, Elaea from olives, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Ver. 23. Out of the fire ] viz. of hell; as the angel pulled Lot out of Sodom, as ye would save a drowning man, though ye pulled off some of his hair to save him. a Hic est depingendus Satan et Tartarus, et career atrocissimus et luctuoaus, in quo vere sit strider dentium et fletus, saith Aretins. Those that are obstinate, and receive not reproofs, are to be terrified and told of the horror of hell, those seas of vengeance, that worm that never dieth, torments without end and past imagination.
Even the garment spotted ] As Nero’s was, when he rode in the same horse litter with his own mother. (Sueton.) The phrase is thought to be taken either from legal impurities of leprous garments, by touching of which men were defiled, Lev 14:54-57 ; or else from the profuse drunkenness and filthiness of the Gnostics, which sometimes defiled their garments.
a Haec est sancta violentia, optabilis rapina. Jerome.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Luz. Compare Gen 28:19, and see Jos 16:1, Jos 16:2. Luz and Beth-el not two cities. 34
spies = sentries.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
sent: Jdg 18:2, Jos 2:1, Jos 7:2
Luz: Gen 28:19, Gen 35:6, Gen 48:3
Reciprocal: 1Sa 30:27 – Bethel 1Ki 11:28 – the house 1Ch 19:3 – to search Amo 5:6 – the house