🔼The name Luz: Summary
- Almond Tree, Twisted
- From the verb לוז (luz), to turn aside.
🔼The name Luz in the Bible
The name Luz occurs twice in the Bible. The original Luz is a town in Canaan, a bit north of Jerusalem. When Jacob arrives there on his way to Haran, he has his famous ladder dream and renames the place Bethel (Genesis 28:19). Much later, the men from the tribe of Joseph sack Bethel but let a collaborator go free. That man founds another town and calls this Luz, after the original name of the town he escaped from (Judges 1:26).
🔼Etymology of the name Luz
The name Luz comes from the verb לוז (luz) meaning to turn aside, and is identical to the noun לוז (luz) denoting the almond tree:
The verb לוז (luz) means to turn aside of away. Noun לזות (lazut) means deviation or crookedness. Noun לוז (luz) describes almond wood.
Most scholars assume that the town Luz was named Almond Tree because the almonds that grew in its environs. There is no proof of that, however, and Luz may very well have been named after a "crooked and perverse generation" that lived there.
For a meaning of the name Luz, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names read Almond Tree.