‘ And it went out from Bethel to Luz, and passed along to the border of the Archites to Ataroth.'
Here Bethel, the sacred place, is distinguished from the city Luz as in Genesis 28:19. Elsewhere the two are identified (Joshua 8:13; Genesis 35:6; Judges 1:23). At this point Luz is not yet named Bethel, a further indication of the age of the sources, and the sacred place is identified separately by the name Bethel. As in Joshua 13:11 the borders of a people are called into play to define the boundary, ‘the border of the Archites'. The Archites were presumably a Canaanite ‘family group', mentioned again in connection with Hushai the Archite, David's friend (2 Samuel 15:32-37). ‘To Ataroth.' There is no preposition in the Hebrew but it must be assumed. It is possibly the same as Ataroth-addar (Joshua 16:5, see also Joshua 18:13).