1. Judges 1:26 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

To what does "the land of the Hittites" refer?

Judges 1:26 (ESV)

26 And the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz. That is its name to this day.

This city could be called New Luz. "The land of the Hittites” can refer to several city-states in Syria (e.g., 1 Kings 10:28; 2 Kings 7:6). It can also refer sometimes to descendants of a man named Heth, descendants who had their territory within Canaan (see Joshua 1:4). That’s likely what is in view here. This Canaanite and his family relocate a number of kilometres away. The end result is that two cities, one Israelite and the other Canaanite, exist side by side. Instead, Luz was not so much conquered as it was moved. Canaanite culture survived in a very tangible way: a whole city.1