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UphazAid to Bible Understanding
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UPHAZ
(Uʹphaz).
A presently unidentified place where gold was found in ancient times.—Jer. 10:9; Dan. 10:5.
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Upper RoomAid to Bible Understanding
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UPPER ROOM
See HOUSE.
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UrAid to Bible Understanding
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UR
[flame].
1. ‘Father’ of Eliphal, one of the mighty men of David’s military forces. (1 Chron. 11:26, 35) Ur appears to be the same person as Ahasbai.—2 Sam. 23:34.
2. “Ur of the Chaldeans,” the city in Mesopotamia where Abram’s (Abraham’s) brother Haran (and likely Abraham himself) was born. (Gen. 11:28; Acts 7:2, 4) Jehovah appeared to Abraham and directed him to leave Ur. The Bible, crediting Terah with the move because he was the family head, says that Terah took his son Abraham, his daughter-in-law Sarah and his grandson Lot, moving from Ur to Haran.—Gen. 11:31; 12:1; Neh. 9:7.
Usually Ur is identified with Tell el-Muqayyar on the W bank of the Euphrates some 150 miles (c. 241 kilometers) SE of Babylon. Ruins there cover an area of about 3,000 by 2,400 feet (914 by 732 meters). Once a center of worship of the moon-god Nanna (or Sin), the site’s most prominent feature is still a temple tower or ziggurat some 200 feet long, 150 wide and 70 high (c. 61 by 46 by 21 meters).
In royal tombs at Ur excavators have found many objects of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and so forth, as well as indications that early Sumerian kings and queens of the city were buried with their retinue of male and female servants.
Ruins of what appear to be private houses excavated at Ur (suggested by some as belonging to the period between the twentieth and sixteenth centuries B.C.E.) were constructed of brick, were plastered and whitewashed, and had thirteen or fourteen rooms surrounding a paved courtyard. Among clay tablets found at the site were some used to teach cuneiform writing. Other tablets indicate that students there had multiplication and division tables and worked at square and cube roots. Many of the tablets are business documents.
From excavations at Ur it thus appears clear that Abraham made notable material sacrifices when leaving that city. But, in faith, the patriarch was “awaiting the city having real foundations, the builder and creator of which city is God.”—Heb. 11:8-10.
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UrbanusAid to Bible Understanding
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URBANUS
(Ur·baʹnus) [refined, elegant].
A Roman Christian greeted in Paul’s letter. (Rom. 16:9) The name is found frequently in inscriptions of Caesar’s household, but the record is silent as to whether this Urbanus was an imperial servant.
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UriAid to Bible Understanding
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URI
(Uʹri) [fiery].
1. A descendant of Judah through Perez, Hezron, Caleb and Hur. Uri’s son Bezalel was a noted tabernacle craftsman.—Ex. 31:2; 35:30; 38:22; 1 Chron. 2:4, 5, 9, 18-20; 2 Chron. 1:5.
2. Father of Geber, who was one of Solomon’s food deputies.—1 Ki. 4:7, 19.
3. One of the three Levitical gatekeepers whom Ezra induced to send away their foreign wives and sons.—Ezra 10:10, 11, 24, 44.
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UriahAid to Bible Understanding
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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.
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UrielAid to Bible Understanding
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URIEL
(U·riʹel) [flame of God or my light is God].
1. A Levite descendant of Kohath; son of Tahath.—1 Chron. 6:22, 24.
2. Chief of the Kohathites at the time David had the ark of the covenant brought to Jerusalem.—1 Chron. 15:5, 11, 12, 15.
3. Father of Micaiah (Maacah), who was the wife of King Rehoboam and mother of Abijah. (2 Chron. 13:1, 2; 11:21) Maacah was Absalom’s granddaughter. Since Absalom’s three sons apparently died young and childless (2 Sam. 14:27; 18:18), Micaiah must have been the child of Absalom’s daughter Tamar, and Uriel not the son but the son-in-law of Absalom.
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UrijahAid to Bible Understanding
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URIJAH
(U·riʹjah) [Jehovah is a light; flame of Jehovah].
1. A priest during the reign of King Ahaz of Judah (761-746 B.C.E.). When Ahaz went to Damascus to offer tribute to Tiglath-pileser (III), he sent Urijah the design and pattern of the great altar he saw there, telling him to build one like it and later instructing him to use it instead of Jehovah’s altar. Urijah complied. (2 Ki. 16:8-16) Urijah (Uriah) also witnessed a writing of Isaiah. (Isa. 8:1, 2) Though not so identified, he was presumably high priest, in view of his importance and the absence of any other person so titled at this time.
2. A prophet of Jehovah, son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. During the reign of Jehoiakim, Urijah prophesied against Judah and Jerusalem just as Jeremiah did. However, when Urijah learned that Jehoiakim sought his death, he fled to Egypt, but was brought back and slain, his body being cast into a common graveyard.—Jer. 26:20-23.
3. A priest whose son Meremoth was one of the priests in whose care Ezra entrusted the gold and silver and temple vessels brought to Jerusalem. Urijah later helped to repair Jerusalem’s wall; son of Hakkoz.—Ezra 8:33; Neh. 3:4, 21.
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Urim and ThummimAid to Bible Understanding
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URIM AND THUMMIM
(“lights and perfections,” plural in the sense of excellence).
The first mention of these items in the Scriptures is found at Exodus 28:30.
As recorded at Leviticus 8:8, Moses, after placing the breastpiece upon Aaron, put the Urim and the Thummim in the breastpiece. While the Hebrew preposition here translated “in” can be rendered “upon,” the same word is used at Exodus 25:16 in speaking of placing the two stone tablets in the ark of the covenant. (Ex. 31:18) Some have proposed the suggestion that the Urim and the Thummim were the twelve stones affixed to the breastpiece. That this was not the case is shown by the fact that, in the priestly inauguration ceremony, the completed breastpiece
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