Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
however, has nothing at all to do with the one-horned animal of the Greek and Roman writers, as
is evident from (33:17) where in the blessing of Joseph it is said; “his glory is like the firstling of
his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of a unicorn ;” not, as the text of the Authorized Version
renders it, “the horns of unicorns .” The two horns of the ram are “the ten thousands of Ephraim
and the thousands of Manasseh.” This text puts a one-horned animal entirely out of the question.
Considering that the reem is spoken of as a two-horned animal of great strength and ferocity, that
it was evidently well known and often seen by the Jews, that it is mentioned as an animal fit for
sacrificial purposes, and that it is frequently associated with bulls and oxen we think there can be
no doubt that, some species of wild ox is intended. The allusion in (Psalms 92:10) “But thou shalt
lift up, as a reeym, my horn,” seems to point to the mode in which the Bovidae use their horns,
lowering the head and then tossing it up. But it is impossible to determine what particular species
of wild ox is signified probably some gigantic urus is intended. (It is probable that it was the gigantic
Bos primigeniua, or aurochs, now extinct, but of which Caesar says, “These uri are scarcely less
than elephants in size, but in their nature, color and form are bulls. Great is their strength and great
their speed; they spare neither man nor beast when once; they have caught sight of them”—Bell.
Gall. vi. 20.-ED.)
Unni
(depressed).
•One of the Levite doorkeepers in the time of David. (1 Chronicles 15:18,20) (B.C. 1043.)
•A second Levite (unless the family of the foregoing be intended) concerned in the sacred office
after the return from Babylon. (Nehemiah 12:9) (B.C. 535.)
Uphaz
(Jeremiah 10:9; Daniel 10:5) [Ophir]
Ur
was the land of Haran’s nativity, (Genesis 11:28) the place from which Terah and Abraham
started “to go into the land of Canaan.” (Genesis 11:31) It is called in Genesis “Ur of the
Chaldaeans,” while in the Acts St. Stephen places it, by implication, in Mesopotamia. (Acts 7:2,4)
These are all the indications which Scripture furnishes as to its locality. It has been identified by
the most ancient traditions with the city of Orfah in the highlands of Mesopotamia, which unite the
table-land of Armenia to the valley of the Euphrates. In later ages it was called Edessa, and was
celebrated as the capital of Abgarus or Acbarus who was said to have received the letter and portrait
of our Saviour. “Two, physical features must have secured Orfah, from the earliest times, as a
nucleus for the civilization of those regions. One is a high-crested crag, the natural fortifications
of the crested citadel....The other is an abundant spring, issuing in a pool of transparent clearness,
and embosomed in a mass of luxuriant verdure, which, amidst the dull brown desert all around,
makes and must always have made, this spot an oasis, a paradise, in the Chaldaean wilderness.
Round this sacred pool,’the beautiful spring Callirrhoe,’ as it was called by the Greek writers, gather
the modern traditions of the patriarch.”—Stanley, Jewish Church, part i.p.7. A second tradition,
which appears in the Talmud, finds Ur in Warka, 120 miles southeast from Babylon and four east
of the Euphrates. It was the Orchoe of the Greeks, and probably the Ereck of Holy Scripture. This
place bears the name of Huruk in the native inscriptions, and was in the countries known to the
Jews as the land of the Chaldaeans. But in opposition to the most ancient traditions, many modern
writers have fixed the site of Ur at a very different position, viz. in the extreme south of Chaldaea,
at Mugheir, not very far above— and probably in the time of Abraham actually upon—the head of
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William Smith