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UZ


UZ (1)

uz (uts 'erets uts; Os, Ox, Ausitis):

Biblical Data:

(1) In Gen 10:23 Uz is the oldest son of Aram and grandson of Shem, while in 1 Ch 1:17 Uz is the son of Shem. Septuagint inserts a passage which supplies this lacking name. As the tables of the nations in Gen 10 are chiefly geographical and ethnographical, Uz seems to have been the name of a district or nation colonized by or descended from Semites of the Aramean tribe or family.

(2) The son of Nahor by Milcah, and older brother of Buz (Gen 2:21). Here the name is doubtless personal and refers to an individual who was head of a clan or tribe kindred to that of Abraham.

(3) A son of Dishan, son of Seir the Horite (Gen 36:28), and personal name of a Horite or perhaps of mixed Horite and Aramean blood.

(4) The native land and home of Job (Job 1:1), and so situated as to be in more or less proximity to the tribe of the Temanites (Job 2:11), the Shuhites (Job 2:11), the Naamathites (Job 2:11), the Buzites (Job 32:2), and open to the inroads of the Chaldeans (Job 1:17), and the Sabeans (Job 1:15 the Revised Version (British and American)), as well as exposed to the great Arabian Desert (1:19). See the next article.

(5) A kingdom of some importance somewhere in Southern Syria and not far from Judea, having a number of kings (Jer 25:20).

(6) A kingdom, doubtless the same as that of Jer 25:20 and inhabited by or in subjection to the Edomites (Lam 4:21), and hence not far from Edom.

James Josiah Reeve


UZ (2)

('uts; Septuagint Ausitis; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) Ausitis): The home of the patriarch Job (Job 1:1; Jer 25:20, "all the kings of the land of Uz"; Lam 4:21, "daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz"). The land of Uz was, no doubt, the pasturing-ground inhabited by one of the tribes of that name, if indeed there be more than one tribe intended. The following are the determining data occurring in the Book of Job. The country was subject to raids by Chaldeans and Sabeans (1:15,17); Job's three friends were a Temanite, a Naamathite and a Shuhite (2:11); Elihu was a Buzite (32:2); and Job himself is called one of the children of the East (Qedhem). The Chaldeans (kasdim, descendants of Chesed, son of Nahor, Gen 22:22) inhabited Mesopotamia; a branch of the Sabeans also appears to have taken up its abode in Northern Arabia (see SHEBA ). Teman (Gen 36:11) is often synonymous with Edom. The meaning of the designation amathite is unknown, but Shuah was a son of Keturah the wife of Abraham (Gen 25:2), and so connected with Nahor. Shuah is identified with Suhu, mentioned by Tiglath-pileser I as lying one day's journey from Carchemish; and a "land of Uzza" is named by Shalmaneser II as being in the same neighborhood. Buz is a brother of Uz ("Huz," Gen 22:21) and son of Nahor. Esar-haddon, in an expedition toward the West, passed through Bazu and Hazu, no doubt the same tribes. Abraham sent his children, other than Isaac (so including Shuah), "eastward to the land of Qedhem" (Gen 25:6). These factors point to the land of Uz as lying somewhere to the Northeast of Palestine. Tradition supports such a site. Josephus says "Uz founded Trachonitis and Damascus" (Ant., I, vi, 4). Arabian tradition places the scene of Job s sufferings in the Hauran at Deir Eiyub (Job's monastery) near Nawa. There is a spring there, which. he made to flow by striking the rock with his foot (Koran 38 41), and his tomb. The passage in the Koran is, however, also made to refer to Job's Well.

Compare JERUSALEM .

LITERATURE.

Talmud of Jerusalem (French translation by M. Schwab, VII, 289) contains a discussion of the date of Job; Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, 220-23, 427, 515.

Thomas Hunter Weir


UZAI

u'-zi, u'-za-i (~'uzay>, meaning unknown): Father of Palal (Neh 3:25).


UZAL

u'-zal ('uzal): Sixth son of Joktan (Gen 10:27; 1 Ch 1:21). Uzal as the name of a place perhaps occurs in Ezek 27:19. the Revised Version (British and American) reads, "Vedan and Javan traded with yarn for thy wares." Here an obscure verbal form, me'uzzal, is taken to mean "something spun," "yarn." But with a very slight change we may read me'uzal = "from Uzal."

The name is identical with the Arabic `Auzal, the old capital of Yemen, later called San`a'. San`a' is described as standing high above sea-level in a fertile land, and traversed by a river bed which in the rainy season becomes a torrent. Under the Himyarite dynasty it succeeded Zafar as the residence of the Tubba`s. If it is the same place as the Audzara or Ausara of the classics, it is clear why Arabic geographers dwell upon its great antiquity. The most celebrated feature of the town was Ghumdan, an immense palace, the building of which tradition ascribes to Shorabbil, the 6th known king of the Himyarites. According to Ibn Khaldoun this building had four fronts in color red, white, yellow and green respectively. In the midst rose a tower of seven stories, the topmost being entirely of marble (Caussin de Perceval, Essai, II, 75). In the 7th century AD the town became the capital of the Zaidite Imams, and the palace was destroyed toward the middle of that century by order of the caliph Othman.

A. S. Fulton


UZZA; UZZAH

uz'-a, uz'-a ('uzzah (2 Sam 6:6-8), otherwise `uzza' meaning uncertain):

(1) One of those who accompanied the ark on its journey from Kiriath-jearim toward David's citadel (2 Sam 6:3-8, "Uzzah" = 1 Ch 13:7-11, "Uzza"). From the text of 2 Sam 6:3-8, as generally corrected with the help of Septuagint, it is supposed that Uzzah walked by the side of the ark while Ahio (or "his brother") went in front of it. The word which describes what happened to the oxen is variously translated; the Revised Version (British and American) has "stumbled"; others render it, "They let the oxen slip," "The oxen shook (the ark)." Uzzah, whatever it be that took place, caught hold of the ark; something else happened, and Uzzah died on the spot. If the word translated "rashness" (Revised Version margin) in 2 Sam 6:7 (not "error" as English Versions of the Bible) is to be kept in the text, Uzzah would be considered guilty of too little reverence for the ark; but the words "for (his) rashness" are lacking in the Septuagint (Codex Vaticanus), while 1 Ch 13:10 has "because he put forth his hand to the ark," and further no such Hebrew word as we find here is known to us. The older commentators regarded the death as provoked by non-observance of the provisions about the ark as given in the Pentateuch, but it is generally believed today that these were not known in David's time.

What is clear is that Uzzah's act led to an accident of some kind, and the event was regarded by David as inauspicious, so that the journey with the ark was discontinued. We know how the Old Testament writers represent events as due to divine intervention where we would perhaps discern natural causes.

(2) The garden of Uzza (2 Ki 21:18,26). Manasseh the king is said (2 Ki 21:18) to have been "buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza"; and Amon (2 Ki 21:26) "was buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza." It has been suggested that "Uzza"--"Uzziah" ('uzziyah) = Azariah" (compare 2 Ki 15:1-6). The garden of Manasseh would then be identical with that of Uzziah, by whom it was originally laid out. 2 Ch 33:20 does not mention the garden.

(3) Son of Shimei, a Merarite (1 Ch 6:29 (Hebrew 14)), the Revised Version (British and American) "Uzzah," the King James Version "Uzza."

(4) A descendant of Ehud, and head of a Benjamite family (1 Ch 8:7, "Uzza"). Hogg, JQR, 102 ff (1893) (see Curtis, Chron., 156-59), finds a proper name "Iglaam" in 1 Ch 8:6, and so reads "and Iglaam begot Uzza and Abishabar."

(5) Head of a Nethinim family that returned from Babylon (Ezr 2:49) = "Uzza" of Neh 7:51.

David Francis Roberts


UZZEN-SHEERAH

uz'-en-she'-e-ra ('uzzen she'erah; Septuagint, instead of a place-name, reads kai huioi Ozan, Seera, "and the sons of Ozan, Sheera"; the King James Version Uzzen-sherah, uzzen-she'ra): As it stands in Massoretic Text this is the name of a town built by Sheerah, daughter of Ephraim, to whom is attributed also the building of the two Beth-horons (1 Ch 7:24). No satisfactory identification has been proposed. Septuagint suggests that the text may have been tampered with.


UZZI

uz'-i ('uzzi, perhaps "my strength"):

(1) A descendant of Aaron and high priest, unknown apart from these sources (1 Ch 6:5,6,51 (Hebrew 5:31,32; 6:36); Ezr 7:4).

(2) An eponym of a family of Issachar (1 Ch 7:2,3).

(3) Head of a Benjamite family (1 Ch 7:7), or more probably of a Zebulunite family (see Curtis, Chron., 145-49).

(4) Father of Elah, a Benjamite (1 Ch 9:8), perhaps the same as (5).

(5) A son of Bani and overseer of the Levitea in Jerusalem (Neh 11:22).

(6) Head of the priestly family of Jedaiah (Neh 12:19,42).

David Francis Roberts


UZZIA

u-zi'-a (`uzziya', "my strength is Yah"; see UZZIAH ): An Ashterathite and one of David's mighty men (1 Ch 11:44).


UZZIAH; (AZARIAH)

u-zi'-a, oo-zi'-a (`uzziyah (2 Ki 15:13,30; Hos 1:1; Am 1:1; Zec 14:5), `uzziyahu (2 Ki 15:32,34; Isa 1:1; 6:1; 7:1; 2 Ch 26:1 ff; 27:2); also called `azaryah (2 Ki 14:21; 15:1,7; 1 Ch 3:12), 'azaryahu (2 Ki 15:6,8); Azarias, in Kings, elsewhere Ozias; the significations of the names are similar, the former meaning "my strength is Yah"; the latter, "Yah has helped." It has been thought that the form "Uzziah" may have originated by corruption from the other. The history of the reign is given in 2 Ki 15:1-8 and 2 Ch 26):

1. Accession:

Uzziah or Azariah, son of Amaziah, and 11th king of Judah, came to the throne at the age of 16. The length of his reign is given as 52 years. The chronological questions raised by this statement are considered below. His accession may here be provisionally dated in 783 BC. His father Amaziah had met his death by popular violence (2 Ki 14:19), but Uzziah seems to have been the free and glad choice of the people (2 Ch 26:1).

2. Foreign Wars:

The unpopularity of his father, owing to a great military disaster, must ever have been present to the mind of Uzziah, and early in his reign he undertook and successfully carried through an expedition against his father's enemies of 20 years before, only extending his operations over a wider area. The Edomites, Philistines and Arabians were successively subdued (these being members of a confederacy which, in an earlier reign, had raided Jerusalem and nearly extirpated the royal family, 2 Ch 21:16; 22:1); the port of Eloth, at the head of the Red Sea, was restored to Judah, and the city rebuilt (2 Ki 14:22; 2 Ch 26:2); the walls of certain hostile towns, Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod, were razed to the ground, and the inhabitants of Gur-baal and Maan were reduced to subjection (2 Ch 26:6,7). Even the Ammonites, East of the Jordan, paid tribute to Uzziah, and "his name spread abroad even to the entrance to Egypt; for he waxed exceeding strong" (2 Ch 26:8).

3. Home Defenses:

Uzziah next turned his attention to securing the defenses of his capital and country. The walls of Jerusalem were strengthened by towers built at the corner gate, at the valley gate, and at an angle in the wall (see plan of Jerusalem in the writer's Second Temple in Jerusalem); military stations were also formed in Philistia, and in the wilderness of the Negeb, and these were supplied with the necessary cisterns for rain storage (2 Ch 26:6,10). The little realm had now an extension and prosperity to which it had been a stranger since the days of Solomon.

4. Uzziah's Leprosy and Retirement:

These successes came so rapidly that Uzziah had hardly passed his 40th year when a great personal calamity overtook him. In the earlier part of his career Uzziah had enjoyed and profited by the counsels of Zechariah, a man "who had understanding in the vision of God" (2 Ch 26:5), and during the lifetime of this godly monitor "be set himself to seek God." Now it happened to him as with his grandfather Jehoash, who, so long as his preserver Jehoiada lived, acted admirably, but, when he died, behaved like an ingrate, and killed his son (2 Ki 12:2; 2 Ch 24:2,22). So now that Zechariah was gone, Uzziah's heart was lifted up in pride, and he trespassed against Yahweh. In the great kingdoms of the East, the kings had been in the habit of exercising priestly as well as royal functions. Elated with his prosperity, Uzziah determined to exercise what he may have thought was his royal prerogative in burning incense on the golden altar of the temple. Azariah the high priest, with 80 others, offered stout remonstrance; but the king was only angry, and pressed forward with a censer in his hand, to offer the incense. Ere, however, he could scatter the incense on the coals, and while yet in anger, the white spots of leprosy showed themselves upon his forehead. Smitten in conscience, and thrust forth by the priests, he hastened away, and was a leper ever after (2 Ch 26:16-21).

Uzziah's public life was now ended. In his enforced privacy, he may still have occupied himself with his cattle and agricultural operations, "for he loved husbandry" (2 Ch 26:10); but his work in the government was over. Both Kings and Chronicles state in nearly identical words: "Jotham the king's son was over the household, judging the people of the land" (2 Ki 15:5; 2 Ch 26:21). Works of the same kind as those undertaken by Uzziah, namely, building military stations in the hills and forests of Judah, repairing the walls of city and temple, etc., are attributed to Jotham (2 Ch 27:3 ff); the truth being that Jotham continued and completed the enterprises his father had undertaken.

5. Chronology of Reign:

The chronology of the reign of Uzziah presents peculiar difficulties, some of which, probably, cannot be satisfactorily solved. Reckoning upward from the fall of Samaria in 721 BC, the Biblical data would suggest 759 as the first year of Jotham. If, as is now generally conceded, Jotham's regnal years are reckoned from the commencement of his regency, when his father had been stricken with leprosy, and if, as synchronisms seem to indicate, Uzziah was about 40 years of age at this time, we are brought for the year of Uzziah's accession to 783. His death, 52 years later, would occur in 731. (On the other hand, it is known that Isaiah, whose call was in the year of Uzziah's death, Isa 6:1, was already exercising his ministry in the reign of Jotham, Isa 1:1.) Another note of time is furnished by the statement that the earliest utterance of Amos the prophet was "two years before the earthquake" (Am 1:1). This earthquake, we are told by Zechariah, was "in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah" (Zec 14:5). Josephus likewise embodies a tradition that the earthquake occurred at the moment of the king's entry into the temple (Ant., IX, x, 4). Indubitably the name of Uzziah was associated in the popular mind with this earthquake. If the prophecy of Amos was uttered a year or two before Jeroboam's death, and this is placed in 759 BC, we are brought near to the date already given for Uzziah's leprosy (Jeroboam's date is put lower by others).

In 2 Kings 15 Uzziah is referred to as giving data for the accessions of the northern kings (15:8, Zechariah; 15:13, Shallum; 15:17, Menahem; 15:23, Pekahiah; 15:27, Pekah), but it is difficult to fit these synchronisms into any scheme of chronology, if taken as regnal years. Uzziah is mentioned as the father of Jotham in 2 Ki 15:32,34; 2 Ch 27:2, and as the grandfather of Ahaz in Isa 7:1. He was living when Isaiah began his ministry (Isa 1:1; 6:1); when Hoses prophesied (Hos 1:1); and is the king in whose reign the afore-mentioned earthquake took place (Zec 14:5). His name occurs in the royal genealogies in 1 Ch 3:11 and Mt 1:8,9. The place of his entombment, owing to his having been a leper, was not in the sepulchers of the kings, but "in the garden of Uzza" (2 Ki 21:26; compare 2 Ch 26:23). Isaiah is stated to have written a life of Uzziah (2 Ch 26:22).

W. Shaw Caldecott


UZZIEL

u-zi'-el, uz'-i-el, oo'-zi-el (`uzzi'el, "El (God) is my strength"):

(1) A "son" of Kohath (Ex 6:18,22; Lev 10:4; Nu 3:19,30; 1 Ch 6:2,18 (Hebrew 5:28; 6:3); 15:10; 23:12,20; 24:24), called in Lev 10:4 "uncle of Aaron." The family is called Uzzielites (ha`uzzi'eli (collectively)) in Nu 3:27; 1 Ch 26:23.

(2) A Simeonite captain (1 Ch 4:42).

(3) Head of a Benjamite (or according to Curtis a Zebulunite) family (1 Ch 7:7).

(4) A Hemanite musician (1 Ch 25:4); The Septuagint's Codex Vaticanus has Azarael = "Azarel," the name given in 1 Ch 25:18.

See AZAREL .

(5) A Levite "son" of Jeduthun (2 Ch 29:14).

(6) A goldsmith who joined in repairing the wall of Jerusalem (Neh 3:8).

(7) The reading of Septuagint (Oziel) for Jahaziel in 1 Ch 23:19.

See JAHAZIEL , (3).

David Francis Roberts



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