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Context No. 84 of 4322 · Judges

Context · Reflection

Judges 1:22-26: in context

22The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them. 23The house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (The name of the city before that was Luz.) 24The watchers saw a man come out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.” 25He showed them the entrance into the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man and all his family go. 26The man went into the land of the Hittites, built a city, and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day.

Judges opens with the tribes trying to take the land they were allotted, mostly failing, and settling in among the peoples they were meant to displace. This passage is a short account of taking Bethel, and it turns on a single man.

The house of Joseph sends spies to the town, which had earlier been called Luz, the place where Jacob had dreamed of the ladder. The spies see a man coming out and make him an offer: show us the way into the city and we will deal kindly with you. He does. They put the city to the sword and let him and his whole family go.

What he does next is the strange part. He goes to the land of the Hittites, builds a city, and names it Luz, which is its name to this day. He rebuilds his hometown somewhere else and gives it the old name. The text passes no judgment on him. He is an informer who sold a city, and a man who kept his family alive and carried the name of his home into exile with him. He is remembered only for a single decision made at a gate. What single choice of mine would still be attached to my name if someone wrote down one thing about me?

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