Into the land of the Hittites. — Probably the inhabitants of Bethel belonged to this tribe of Canaanites. In Joshua 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 Genesis 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 novâ 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 Phœnician frontier (Ewald).
Unto this day. — This formula implies the lapse of some time between the event and this record of it.