Dict: smith - UR

smith:

UR - U>@ - was the land of Haran’s nativity, kjv@Genesis:11:28) the place from which Terah and Abraham started "to go into the land of Canaan." kjv@Genesis:11:31) It is called in Genesis "Ur of the Chaldaeans," while in the Acts St. Stephen places it, by implication, in Mesopotamia. kjv@Acts:7:2-4) These are all the indications which Scripture furnishes as to its locality. It has been identified by the most ancient traditions with the city of Orfah in the highlands of Mesopotamia, which unite the table-land of Armenia to the valley of the Euphrates. In later ages it was called Edessa, and was celebrated as the capital of Abgarus or Acbarus who was said to have received the letter and portrait of our Saviour. "Two, physical features must have secured Orfah, from the earliest times, as a nucleus for the civilization of those regions. One is a high-crested crag, the natural fortifications of the crested citadel....The other is an abundant spring, issuing in a pool of transparent clearness, and embosomed in a mass of luxuriant verdure, which, amidst the dull brown desert all around, makes and must always have made, this spot an oasis, a paradise, in the Chaldaean wilderness. Round this sacred pool,’the beautiful spring Callirrhoe,’ as it was called by the Greek writers, gather the modern traditions of the patriarch."
Stanley, Jewish Church, part i.p.7. A second tradition, which appears in the Talmud, finds Ur in Warka, 120 miles southeast from Babylon and four east of the Euphrates. It was the Orchoe of the Greeks, and probably the Ereck of Holy Scripture. This place bears the name of Huruk in the native inscriptions, and was in the countries known to the Jews as the land of the Chaldaeans. But in opposition to the most ancient traditions, many modern writers have fixed the site of Ur at a very different position, viz. in the extreme south of Chaldaea, at Mugheir , not very far above
and probably in the time of Abraham actually upon
the head of the Persian Gulf. Among the ruins which are now seen at the spot are the remains of one of the great temples, of a model similar to that of Babel, dedicated to the moon, to whom the city was sacred. (Porter and Rawlinson favor this last place.)

URBANE, OR URBANE - U>@ - (of the city; polite), the Greek form of the Latin Urbanus, as it is given in the Revised Version. He was a Christian disciple who is in the long list of those whom St. Paul salutes in writing to Rome. kjv@Romans:16:9) (A.D. 55.)

URBANUS - U>@ - the form given in the Revised Version for Urbane.

URI - U>@ - (fiery). The father of Bezaleel, one of the architects of the tabernacle. kjv@Exodus:31:2 kjv@Exodus:35:30 kjv@Exodus:38:22 ; kjv@1Chronicles:2:20; kjv@2Chronicles:1:5) He was of the tribe of Judah, and grandson of Caleb ben
- Hezron. (B.C. 1491.) The father of Geber, Solomon’s commissariat officer in Gilead. (Kings:4:19) (B.C. before 1010.) One of the gatekeepers of the temple in the time of Ezra. kjv@Ezra:10:24) (B.C. 458.)

URIAH - U>@ - (light of Jehovah). One of the thirty commanders of the thirty bands into which the Israelite army of David was divided. ( kjv@1Chronicles:11:41; 2 Samuel 23:39) Like others of David’s officers he was a foreigner
a Hittite. His name, however and his manner of speech (2 Samuel 11:11) indicate that he had adopted the Jewish religion. He married Bath-sheba a woman of extraordinary beauty, the daughter of Eliam
possibly the same as the son of Ahithophel, and one of his brother officers, (2 Samuel 23:34) and hence, perhaps, Uriah’s first acquaintance with Bath-sheba. It may be inferred from Nathan’s parable, (2 Samuel 12:3) that he was passionately devoted to his wife, and that their union was celebrated in Jerusalem as one of peculiar tenderness. In the first war with Ammon, B.C. 1035, he followed Joab to the siege, and with him remained encamped in the open field. (2 Samuel 12:11) He returned to Jerusalem, at an order from the king on the pretext of asking news of the war
really in the hope that his return to his wife might cover the shame of his own crime. The king met with an unexpected obstacle in the austere, soldier-like spirit which guided all Uriah’s conduct, and which gives us a high notion of the character and discipline of David’s officers. On the morning of the third day David sent him back to the camp with a letter containing the command to Joab to cause his destruction in the battle. The device of Joab was to observe the part of the wall of Rabbath-ammon where the greatest force of the besieged was congregated, and thither, as a kind of forlorn hope to send Uriah. A sally took place. Uriah and the officers with him advanced as far as the gate of the city, and were there shot down by the archers on the wall. Just as Joab had forewarned the messenger, the king broke into a furious passion on hearing of the loss. The messenger, as instructed by Joab, calmly continued, and ended the story with the words, "Thy servant also Uriah the Hittite, is dead." In a moment David’s anger is appeased. It is one of the touching parts of the story that Uriah falls unconscious of his wife’s dishonor. High priest in the reign of Ahaz. kjv@Isaiah:8:2; kjv@2Kings:16:10-16) He is probably the same as Urijah the priest, who built the altar for Ahaz. ( kjv@2Kings:16:10) (B.C. about 738.) A priest of the family of Hakkoz, the head of the seventh course of priests. kjv@Ezra:8:33; kjv@Nehemiah:3:4 kjv@Nehemiah:3:21) (B.C. 458.)

URIAS - U>@ - Uriah, the husband of Bath-sheba. kjv@Matthew:1:6) URIJAH 1 Esdr. kjv@9:43.

URIEL - U>@ - (the fire of God), an angel named only in 2 Esdr. kjv@4:1-36; 5:20; 10:28.

URIEL - U>@ - A Kohathite Levite, son of Tahath. ( kjv@1Chronicles:6:24) Chief of the Kohathites in the reign of David. ( kjv@1Chronicles:15:5 kjv@1Chronicles:15:11) (B.C. 1043.) Uriel of Gibeah was the father of Maachah or Michaiah the favorite wife of Rehoboam and mother of Abijah. ( kjv@2Chronicles:13:2) (B.C. before 973.) In ( kjv@2Chronicles:11:20) she is called "Maachah the daughter of Absalom." Probably her mother, Tamer, was the daughter of Absalom.

URIJAH - U>@ - (light of Jehovah). Urijah the priest in the reign of Ahaz, ( kjv@2Kings:16:10) probably the same as URIAH, A priest of the family of Koz or Hakkoz, the same as URIAH, One of the priests who stood at Ezra’s right hand when he read the law to the people. kjv@Nehemiah:8:4) (B.C. 458.) The son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim. He prophesied in the days of Jehoiakim, B.C. 600, and the king sought to put him to death; but he escaped, and fled into Egypt. His retreat was soon covered; Elnathan and his men brought him up out of Egypt, and Jehoiakim slew him with the sword and cast his body forth among the graves of the common people kjv@Jeremiah:26:20-23)

URIM AND THUMMIM - U>@ - (light and perfection). When the Jewish exiles were met on their return from Babylon by a question which they had no data for answering, they agreed to postpone the settlement of the difficulty till there should rise up "a priest with Urim and Thummim." kjv@Ezra:2:63; kjv@Nehemiah:7:65) The inquiry what those Urim and Thummim themselves were seems likely to wait as long for a final and satisfying answer. On every side we meet with confessions of ignorance. Urim means "light," and Thummim "perfection." Scriptural statements.
The mysterious words meet us for the first time, as if they needed no explanation, in the description of the high Priest’s apparel. Over the ephod there is to be a "breastplate of judgment" of gold, scarlet, purple and fine linen, folded square and doubled, a "span" in length and width. In it are to be set four rows of precious stones, each stone with the name of a tribe of Israel engraved on it, that Aaron "may bear them on his heart." Then comes a further order. In side the breastplate, as the tables of the covenant were placed inside the ark, kjv@Exodus:25:16 kjv@Exodus:28:30) are to be placed "the Urim and the Thummim," the light and the perfection; and they too are to be on Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the Lord. kjv@Exodus:28:15-30) Not a word describes them. They are mentioned as things-already familiar both to Moses and the people, connected naturally with the functions of the high priest as mediating between Jehovah and his people. The command is fulfilled. kjv@Leviticus:8:8) They pass from Aaron to Eleazar with the sacred ephod and other pontificalia . kjv@Numbers:20:28) When Joshua is solemnly appointed to succeed the great hero-law-giver he is bidden to stand before Eleazar, the priest, "who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim," and this counsel is to determine the movements of the host of Israel. kjv@Numbers:27:21) In the blessings of Moses they appear as the crowning glory of the tribe of Levi: "thy Thummim and thy Urim are with thy Holy One." (33:8-9) In what way the Urim and Thummim were consulted is quite uncertain. Josephus and the rabbins supposed that the stones gave out the oracular answer by preternatural illumination; but it seems to be far simpler and more in agreement with the different accounts of inquiries made by Urim and Thummim, ( kjv@1Samuel:14:3 kjv@1Samuel:14:18-19 kjv@1Samuel:23:2-4 kjv@1Samuel:23:9-11-12 kjv@1Samuel:28:6 ; kjv@Judges:20:28; 2 Samuel kjv@5:23) etc., to suppose that the answer was given simply by the word of the Lord to the high priest comp. kjv@John:11:51) when, clothed with the ephod and the breastplate, he had inquired of the Lord. Such a view agrees with the true notion of the breastplate.