< Previous | Contents | Next >
“Between Ur and Harran there must, consequently, have been a close connection in early times, the record of which has not yet been recovered. It may be that Harran owed its foundation to a king of Ur; at any rate the two cities were bound together by the worship of the same deity, the closest and most enduring bond of union that existed in the ancient world. That Terah should have migrated from Ur to Harran, therefore, ceases to be extraordinary. If he left Ur at all, it was the most natural place to which to go. It was like passing from one court of a temple into another.
“Such a remarkable coincidence between the Biblical narrative and the evidence of archaeological research cannot be the result of chance. The narrative must be historical; no writer of late date, even if he were a Babylonian, could have invented a story so exactly in accordance with what we now know to have been the truth. For a story of the kind to have been the invention of Palestinian tradition is equally impossible. To the unprejudiced mind there is no escape from the conclusion that the history of the migration of Terah from Ur to Harran is founded on fact” (Sayce).
•URIAH the Lord is my light. (1.) A Hittite, the husband of Bathsheba, whom David first seduced, and then after Uriah’s death married. He was one of the band of David’s “mighty men.” The sad story of the curel wrongs inflicted upon him by David and of his mournful death are simply told in the sacred record (2 Samuel 11:2-12:26). (See BATHSHEBA; DAVID.)
(2.) A priest of the house of Ahaz (Isaiah 8:2).
(3.) The father of Meremoth, mentioned in Ezra 8:33.
•URIEL God is my light. (1.) A Levite of the family of Kohath (1 Chronicles 6:24).
(2.) The chief of the Kohathites at the time when the ark was brought up to Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 15:5, 11).
(3.) The father of Michaiah, one of Rehoboam’s wives, and mother of Abijah (2 Chronicles 13:2).