3. A prophet, son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim, the .story 01 whose death is incidentally narrated in Jer 26-°"^. From this we learn that he was a con- temporary and perhaps a disciple of Jeremiah, whose denunciations against Jerusalem and Judah he is stated to have echoed. Unlike the greater prophet, however, he did not succeed in evading the vengeance of Jehoiakim. Uriah having taken refuge in Egypt, the king demanded his extradi- tion through Elnathan, his father-in-law (2 K 2#), who was leader of an emhassy, the real object of which was, in all probability, to solicit the aid of Egypt against Nebuchadnezzar. It is unlikely that Jehoiakim would have gone to the trouble and expense of sending a special mission merely to capture a single prophet. Having executed Uriah, the king added the further outrage of casting his dead body into the common graveyard. It is commonly thought that this story is intro- duced here by Jeremiah in order to prove that his own personal risk, as recorded in this chapter, was a very real one. On the other hand, Rashi main- tains that these verses constitute the rejoinder of Jeremiah's enemies to the precedent of Hezekiah and .Micah alleged by his friends. 4. A priest, son or representative of Hakkoz (Neh 3*- '^), by whom is probably meant the seventh of the twenty-four courses of priests (1 Ch 24'"). He is mentioned only a-s father or ancestorof Meremoth or Meraiotli, an eminent priest who was chief of the four officials to whom Ezra entrusted the sacred \essels and treasure brought from Babylon (Ezr S'*', 1 Es S"^- [Urias]), who repaired two sections of the wall of Jerusalem (Neh 3^- "), and whose name is substi- tuted in the lists of priestly families, Neh 10" 12*- ", for that of Hakkoz. 5. One of those who stood on Ezra's right hand when he publicly read the Law (Neh 8*. i Es 9« [Urias]). He was jirobably a priest. N. J. D. White.
URIAS.— 1. (B Oipelas, B*- Oupios, A Oipl, AV Iri) 1 Es »•>- (LXX «'). In Ezr 8=« Uriah. Perhaps identical with— 2. (B Oipelas, B" A Ouplas) 1 Es 9^. In Neh 8' Uriah.
URIEL (Sx"HN, 'flame of EI,' or 'my light is El ' ; cf. Phoen. -hoix, Assyr. Unimilki). — 1. A Kohathite chief, 1 Ch 6»*W (B 'OpijJX, sup ras A*? and Luc. Ol>4\), 15»-" (B OipiifK, 'Api^X, A both times OvpiiiX). 2. The maternal grandfather of .\bijah, 2 Ch 13= (BA Oi>7)X). See Maacah, No. 3, and cf., further, Benzinger, Chron. ad loc. 3. See next article.
URIEL (Ovpii)\). — One of the four chief arch- angels. In Enoch 20^ he is called 'the angel who is over the world (? angel-host) and Tartarus.' In keeping with this title, Uriel is the one who accom- panies Enoch in his visits to Tartarus, and who ex- plains to iiiin the tortures of the lost (19' 21»-'<' 27= 33'). In 2 Ksilras, Uriel is sent to ask Esdras if he can 'weigh the flame of fire, or measure the wind, or recall the past.' If not, why does he presume to challenge the dealings of God (4') ! Similar errands are narrated in 2 Es S™"- lOn In the Prayer of Joseph, Uriel is the angel with whom Jacob wrestles. In WTestling with him, Jacob claims to be ' the firstborn of every creature animated by
God,' and affirms that Uriel is eighth in rank aftei him [see Joseph, Prayer of, vol. ii. p. 778'']. In the Sibylline Oracles, ii. 228, Uriel is named as the one who will bring the sorrow-stricken forms of the Titans and giants to judgment ; and in the Life of Adam and Eve, § 48, Michael and Uriel are commanded to bury Adam and Abel in Paradise.
J. T. Marshall.
URIM AND THUMMIM.— From an interesting passage of an early historical work we learn that the ancient Hebrews recognized three principal media through which the Divine will might be revealed to men. When Saul in his later years 'inquired' of J", 'J" answered him n t, neither by dreams, nor by Urim — which we may provisionally render, by the sacred lot — nor by prophets' (1 S 28"). The same three channels of Divine com- munication were also recognized in ancient Greece, although there divination by lot 'was entirely overshadowed by the prophetic frenzy and inspira- tion through dreams ' (art. ' Sortes ' in Smith's Diet, of Aixtiq.^). In this article we have to investigate the mode of ascertaining the Divine will by means of the sacred lots, known as ' the Urim and the Thummini [more correctly Tummini].'
Considering the evident importance of this, apparently the only legitimate, mode of divination in early times, the number of express references to the Urim and Thummim is surprisingly limited. In Ex 28-», Lv 8' (both P) we have D-iixn (ha-''(lrim) and D'Eijn {hat-tummim) ; in Ezr 2^, Neh 1^, without the article (here only in OT) 'tirim and tummim. Dt 33^ gives them in the reverse order (see below). In Nu 27'-', 1 S 28* 'lirim stands alone. 1 S H'"'-, from which, in our ^NIT, Urim and Thummim has disappeared, will be fully discussed below,* where also will be found the few references in the apocryphal writings.
The present vocalization leaves no doubt as to the etjtnology and signification of C'l^N and D'pp intended by the Massoretio scholars. The former is evidently connected with iHk 'light,' the latter is the plural of ori, ' completeness,' in a moral senss 'perfection,' 'innocence*: the idea being, perhaps, that Urim was the lot which brought to light t.'ic •luUt of the subject of the ordeal, while Thummim establishetl his innoeejice. "The words are to be understood as intensive plurals, and rendered, on this hypothesis, ' Light and Perfection (or Innocence),' rather than as RVm (Ex 28^'^), ' the Lights and the Perfections.' It will, however, appear in the sequel that the sacred lot was fre- quentl) used where there is no question of guilt or innocence, and it is an open question whether the Massoretic pronuncia- tion reaches back to the time when the lot was in use. Various alternative et.vmologies have been proposed of late. Thus Well- hausen in his ProUijomena (Eng. ea. p. 394) proposed to connect Urim with the verb T]N, 'to curse,' and expressed approval of Freytag's connexion of Thummim with the Arabic tamXina, a species of amulet (S'-e Krevtag, Lex A rah. -Lot, i. IDyb ; JBL xix. (1900) 68); cf. Haupt-Schwally, ZdTW xi. 172, who sug^ pests ' cursing and blessing' as probable renderings; and Ball, m the list of proper names at end of his Light J'rom the East, ' biddings and forbiddings (V)-* In his later works, however, Wellh. has given up this etymology. In view of the ancient and long -continued influence of Babylonian ideas on the religious thought of the West, there is greater probability in the etymology recently proposed b.v some Assyriologists of repute, who suggest as the root of O'Tk the Piel intiB. form u'uru (stem "iNiX or TK), 'to send forth (an edict),* wheno« vrtu and tertu, the technical liabylonian terms for an oracle. (See Zimmern, Beitrdfje zur Kentni^ rf. bah. Reliijion, S8f. 91, note 2; Muss-Amolt. AJSL xvi. (1900) 218). One is further tempted to connect Thunmiim with the verb tamU, Piel tummim, freipient in the divination vocabulary of the Babylonians, in the sense of ' to put under a spell ' (see Ziinmem'e vocabulary, op. eit. 78). ' If these derivations are correct, D'l'N and D'^n would correspond tothe Babyl. urtu ("command," "decision," mostly of the gods), and taniUu. a synonym of pirwAfw = " oracle, " oracular decision of the gods " ' (Muss-Amolt, op. cit. 219).