Genesis 28:19
“He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.”
What does Genesis 28:19 mean?
Jacob named the place where he'd just experienced his transformative dream "Bethel," which means "house of God." The verse notes that the city itself had previously been called Luz, a name that likely meant something like "almond tree." This detail shows how a location could carry both a secular name (used by locals for practical purposes) and a spiritual name (meaningful to those who encountered God there). For Jacob, the old name didn't matter anymore because the place had become sacred to him, marking the spot where God appeared to confirm the covenant made with his grandfather Abraham. The renaming reflects how an encounter with God can completely reshape how we see and remember a moment or place in our lives.