URIAH

(U·riʹah) [flame of Jah, or, my light is Jah].

1. The Hittite husband of Bath-sheba. Uriah was one of David’s foreign warriors. (2 Sam. 23:39; 1 Chron. 11:41) His words, conduct, marriage to a Jewess and residence in Jerusalem close to the king’s palace, all suggest that he adopted the worship of Jehovah God as a circumcised proselyte.—2 Sam. 11:3, 6-11.

While Uriah was engaged in the battle against Ammon at Rabbah, David committed adultery with his wife Bath-sheba, about which Uriah never learned. David then sent and had Uriah come to Jerusalem, whereupon the king asked him about the progress of the war and sent him out to go to his home so that his wife’s child might appear to be Uriah’s. However, Uriah refused to go there because the army was out in the field. (Deut. 23:9-11; compare 1 Samuel 21:5.) Even when David made him drunk he still refused to sleep at home. (2 Sam. 11:1-13) David’s crime against Uriah then doubled, for he returned to the war carrying David’s own instructions to Joab to maneuver Uriah’s death in battle.—2 Sam. 11:14-26.

2. A priest who witnessed Isaiah’s writing the name of his son Maher-shalal-hash-baz on a tablet. (Isa. 8:1, 2) Uriah’s name is elsewhere spelled Urijah.—2 Ki. 16:10; see URIJAH No. 1.

3. Presumably a priest, one who stood at Ezra’s right when he read from the Law to the returned exiles assembled at the Water Gate in Jerusalem.—Neh. 8:1-4.