UZ

UZ (Heb. עוּץ). The identification of the land of Uz, Job's home, is rendered difficult by the fact that two distinct locations are called Uz in the Bible. In Genesis 10:23; 22:21; and I Chronicles 1:17 Uz is clearly associated with Aram. However, in Genesis 36:28 and I Chronicles 1:42 it is, though less clearly, associated with Edom, and in Lamentations 4:21, "the land of Uz" seems to be a designation for an extensive region of which Edom is a part, or else a generic designation of Edom. S.R. Driver and G.B. Gray solve this contradiction by suggesting that Uz is the name of widely scattered Arab tribes, but in Job it refers to Aram. N.H. Tur-Sinai suggests that Job (and perhaps a tribe called Uz) once lived in Edom and then moved to Aram, and all other occurrences in the Bible placing Uz in Edom derive from this tradition. P. Dhorme, on the basis of clear association between the names of Job's friends and southern localities, placed Uz in Edom. M.H. Pope concludes that, "It seems impossible to reconcile the conflicting evidences and opinions as to the exact location of Uz." -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S.R. Driver and G.B. Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Job (ICC 1921), 2ff.; P. Dhorme, Le Livre De Job (1926); N.H. Tur-Sinai, The Book of Job (1957); M.H. Pope, Job (1965), 3ff. (Daniel Boyarin) UZAL UZAL (Heb. אוּזָל), a geographic designation in the Bible, appearing in two different and seemingly unrelated contexts. (1) In the Table of Nations, Uzal is a descendant of Shem and son of Joktan (Gen. 10:27; I Chron. 1:21), and probably refers to Sanʿa, the capital of Yemen, since the family of Joktan represents the inhabitants of Southern Arabia and Azal is the pre-Islamic name of Sanʿa. (2) The Uzal mentioned in Ezekiel 27:19 was, apparently, one of the places which traded with Tyre, Although the meaning of the text is uncertain, in the light of the Septuagint reading of yayin (יַיִן, "wine") instead of javan (יָוָן), it seems to be dealing with a wine-producing region comparable to that of Helbon (near Damascus), mentioned in the preceding verse. Now, wine from Izalla is compared to wine from Helbon in a lexical text from Nineveh. Accordingly, the Uzal of Ezekiel 27:19 is probably to be identified with the Izalla of cuneiform sources, which was located near the Upper Tigris (Izalla Mountain of Byzantine historians).   -BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Strothmann, in: El, 4 (19342), 154; J. Lewy, in: Orientalia, 21 (1952), 1–12; A. Millard, in: JSS, 7 (1962), 201–3. (Irene Grumach)