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Uz

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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1. Son of Aram, and grandson of Shem, according to Genesis 10:23; but 1 Chronicles 1:17 records him as a son of Shem.
2. Eldest son of Nahor by Milcah; nephew of Abraham (Genesis 22:21; A. V. has "Huz").
3. One of the sons of Dishan, and grandson of Seir the Horite (ib. 36:28; 1 Chronicles 1:42).
4. Geographical name occurring three times in the Old Testament and connoting: (1) the native land of Job (Job. 1:1); (2) a country northeast of Egypt, which it separated from Philistia, being one of the lands to which, at the command of Yhwh, Jeremiah gave the wine-cup of fury to drink (Jeremiah 25:20); and (3) a country comprising part of Edom, summoned to rejoice over the destruction of the Temple (Lamentations 4:21).

According to modern investigators, who regard the names given in Genesis as geographical terms, the territory of Uz embraced the regions represented by the names of the persons mentioned above; and in like manner the brief notices in Jeremiah and Lamentations agree with those concerning the native country of Job's friends, as well as with other data concerning the land in the first chapter of Job. According to verses 15 and 17 of that chapter, the country was first invaded by the Sabeans from the south, and later by the Chaldeans from the north, which implies that the district lay on the northern edge of the great Arabian desert. Eliphaz, one of the friends of Job, was from Teman, a town of southern Edom; his companion, Bildad, came from Shuah (Genesis 25:2), which, according to the cuneiform inscriptions, lay south of Karkemesh (Carchemish); and Elihu was a native of Buz (comp. Jeremiah 25:23; Genesis 22:21). According to the cuneiform inscriptions, Shalmaneser II. received tribute from one Sasi, a son of the land of Uzza, from 859 to 831 B.C.; and the Midrash also identifies the name of Uz with the country, making Job a contemporary of Abraham (Yalḳ. Shim'oni, 102:2; Gen. R. 57:3).