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Uz

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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The " land of Uz " (pay rim) is best known as the scene of the story of Job. Its precise location is a matter of uncertainty, opinion being divided between a position N. of Palestine ("(" Aram Naharaim ") and one to the S.E., in the neighbourhood of Edom. In favour of the former are the references in Gen. x. 23, xxii. 21, the inclusion of Job among " the children of the East," the possibility that Bildad the Shuhite (cf. Gen. xxv. 2, 6) belonged to the Silhu, a people living on the right bank of the Euphrates, and the description of Elihu as a Buzite (xxxii. 2). Whether the name Uz is found or not in the cuneiform inscriptions is disputed. In favour of the S.E. position we have the description of Elihu as of the family of Ram' which (i Chron. ii.) was a distinctly southern people, the fact that Eliphaz was a Temanite (i.e. he came from Edom, cf. Gen. xxxvi. 4) and the references in Gen. xxxvi. 28 and Lam. iv. 21. The mention of Uz in Jer. xxv. 20 is probably a gloss. While Edom and Uz are not to be identified, the traditional association of " wisdom " with Edom may incline us to place the Uz of Job in its neighbourhood rather than in that of the Euphrates. The tradition which places Job's home in Hauran has no value. It is worth noting that the Septuagint forms from Uz the adjective Mains, which points to a pronunciation Aus = Arabic Au(1, the name of a god whose worship was widely spread and might therefore be readily borne by tribes or attached to districts in several regions.

Uzes, a town of southern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Gard, finely situated on an eminence above the Alzon, r6 m. N. by E. of Nimes by road. Pop. (1906) 4008. Uzes, the seat of an episcopal see from the 5th century to 1790, has a cathedral almost destroyed by the Protestants during the religious wars and rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries, but still flanked by a round tower of five storeys lighted by arched openings and dating from the 12th century. The Duche, a château of powerful lords, at first viscounts, and in 1565 dukes, of Uzes, preserves a donjon originally of the 12th century; the main building, flanked by a Gothic chapel, is Renaissance in style. The most ancient structure in the town is a crypt beneath a private house, attributed to the early centuries of the Christian era. The sub-prefecture and the tribunal of first instance occupy the old bishop's palace (17th century). There is a statue of Admiral Brueys (1753-1798), a native of the town. Uzes has a communal college for boys, and carries on the manufacture of silk, bricks and fireproof earthenware, and liquorice, and trade in the truffles for which the district is noted.