Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 1:26
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.
26. the land of the Hittites ] Cappadocia seems to have been the original home of the powerful, non-Semitic race of the Hittites, known to the Egyptians as eta. They are first mentioned in the inscriptions of Thothmes III (1500 b.c.), in whose time their empire extended southwards to the district of Kommagene, N. of Carchemish. Later on they pushed further south, into the upper valley of the Orontes. Throughout the period of the Tell el-Amarna tablets (c. 1400 b.c.) and of the Assyrian inscriptions from the 12th to the 8th cents. (Tiglath-pileser I to Sargon) ‘the land of the Hittites,’ mat atti, is in N. Syria. This is no doubt the situation intended here and in Jdg 3:3 (corrected), Jos 1:4, 1Ki 10:20, 2Ki 7:6. Later writers, especially P, mention Hittites as settled in Central or Southern Palestine (Hebron), Gen 23:10 etc., Gen 26:34, Num 13:29, perhaps using the term loosely for the original inhabitants of Canaan. We have no means of identifying the northern Luz. The tradition of its origin reminds us of the story of the northern Dan, Jdg 18:27 ff.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The site of this new Luz is not known, but the land of the Hittites was apparently in the north of Palestine, on the borders of Syria (Gen 10:15 note).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 26. The land of the Hittites] Probably some place beyond the land of Canaan, in Arabia, whither this people emigrated when expelled by Joshua. The man himself appears to have been a Hittite, and to perpetuate the name of his city he called the new one which he now founded Luz, this being the ancient name of Beth-el.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The land of the Hittites; where the Hittites seated themselves after they were driven out of Canaan, which seems to be northward from Canaan, and near unto it. See 1Ki 11:1; 2Ch 1:17.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. Luz(See on Ge12:7; Ge 28:18).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the man went into the land of the Hittites,…. With his family; Kimchi says this was not one of the seven nations of Canaan; and it is very clear from this narrative, that the land this man went to was not in the land of Canaan; though it is certain a people of this name formerly dwelt there, Ge 15:20; and the land of Canaan is called the land of the Hittites, Jos 1:4; these either might flee to another country upon Joshua’s entry into the land of Canaan, or a colony of them from thence might settle elsewhere, to which this man chose to go, who might be originally of them:
and built a city; his family was numerous, and he a man of wealth, and was allowed to carry all his substance with him:
and called the name of it Luz; in memory of the place he left, and had long lived in. There is a city called Loussa, among the cities which Josephus says s were taken by the Jews from the Arabians; and which is very probably the Lysa of Ptolemy t, which he places in Arabia Petraea, and might be the same with this Luz; and, if so, this shows the land this man went into was in Edom, which is not unlikely; there is another Luza, which Jerom u says fell to the lot of the sons of Joseph, near Sichem, three miles from Neapolis:
which [is] the name thereof unto this day: the time of the writing of this book; [See comments on Jud 1:21].
s Antiqu. l. 14. c. 1. sect. 4. t Geograph. l. 5. c. 17. u De loc. Heb. fol. 92. M.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The man whom they had permitted to go free, went with his family into the land of the Hittites, and there built a town, to which he gave the name of his earlier abode, viz., Luz. The situation of this Luz is altogether unknown. Even the situation of the land of the Hittites cannot be more precisely determined; for we find Hittites at Hebron in the times of Abraham and Moses (Gen 23), and also upon the mountains of Palestine (Num 13:29), and at a later period on the north-east of Canaan on the borders of Syria (1Ki 10:29). That the Hittites were one of the most numerous and widespread of the tribes of the Canaanites, is evident from the fact that, in Jos 1:4, the Canaanites generally are described as Hittites.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(26) Into the land of the Hittites.Probably the inhabitants of Bethel belonged to this tribe of Canaanites. In Jos. 1:4 their name is used for all the inhabitants of Canaan, but probably it means the coastdwellers. They are often conjecturally classed with the inhabitants of Citium, in Cyprus. They first appear as children of Heth, in Gen. 23:19, but seem at that time to have been only a small tribe. Abraham, as Ewald observes, went to the Amorites for his allies, but to the Hittites for his grave. The Talmud says that this Luz was famous for its purple dye, and partly on this account Thomson identifies it with Kulb Louzy, not far from Antioch. It was not uncommon in ancient days for the fugitives from a city to build another city elsewhere of the same name. Thus Teucer, when driven from Salamis, built a new Salamis in Cyprus:
Ambiguam tellure nov Salamina futuram (Hor. Od. i. 7).
Although the site of this new Luz has not been certainly identified, it was probably in some northern district on the Phnician frontier (Ewald).
Unto this day.This formula implies the lapse of some time between the event and this record of it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
26. The man went into the land of the Hittites The Hebrew historian had special interest in the fortunes of those who, like this man and Rahab, advanced the interests of Israel. The land of the Hittites is an obscure expression. It seems, in some passages, to refer to the whole interior of Palestine. Jos 1:4. Eusebius and Jerome refer it to the island of Cyprus. Cassel thinks it here refers “to the familiarly known Chittim, north of Israel,” and he accordingly seeks for the Luz which this man built in the northern coasts of Phenicia, and suggests its identity with the ruins of Kulb Lousy, which Thomson discovered far in the north of Palestine. But the subject is too much involved in obscurity for a positive settlement.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ And the man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day.’
The man left Canaan with his family and reaching the land of the Hittites built a new city, calling it Luz, possibly as a kind of guilt offering for what he had done. The Hittites, as a once powerful nation, dwelt in Syria, and their empire would shortly collapse.
In all this the tribes of Joseph, (Ephraim and Manasseh), were obedient to God’s command to drive out the Canaanites. But this would soon change. Does the change from Joseph to Ephraim and Manasseh indicate the idea of covenant unfaithfulness resulting in division? Or that simply they divided up to go after their selected territories, or in order to make up ‘the twelve’ once Levi had received Yahweh as their inheritance (Jos 13:33).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 1:26. The man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the name thereof Luz The land of the Hittites, probably, means some colony of that people settled in Syria or Arabia. The man, most likely, was himself a Hittite. His building a city is a certain proof that he was allowed to retire with his family and effects; and these circumstances respecting him appear to be related to do honour to his memory: for it is well known to have been the practice of all good writers to eternize the remembrance of the founders of cities. Bochart observes, that Luz had its name from the great plenty of almonds growing there.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jdg 1:26 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.
Ver. 26. And built a city. ] Therefore it seemeth he was well rewarded, and not in counterfeit coin: as the Spaniard rewarded a countryman of ours who had betrayed a town to him in the Netherlands, saying that false money was good enough for so false a knave.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hittites. A nation north of Syria, mentioned on Egyptian inscriptions from 1500 B.C.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the land: 2Ki 7:6, 2Ch 1:17
Reciprocal: Jos 4:9 – and they are there 1Ch 4:43 – unto this day Mat 27:8 – unto
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jdg 1:26. The man went and built a city Which is an argument that the children of Ephraim dismissed him and his family, with all their goods and estate. The land of the Hittites Where the Hittites fixed themselves after they were driven out of Canaan, which seems to have been northward from Canaan, and not far distant from it.