UZ, Us, or Hus,1 the eldest Son of Aram, and Grandson of Shem. ‘Tis thought he peopled Trachonitis, a Province beyond Jordan, having Arabia deserta to the East, and Batanea to the West. This opinion is proposed by St. Jerome and Josephus. The Ancients inform us, that Uz founded the City of Damascus. The Hebrews call by the Name of Uz the Country about Damascus, which the Arabians call Gaut or Gauta. Uz might also be placed about the Sources of the River Tigris. Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Pliny place thereabouts a People called Uxii, or Oxii. See HUS.
Moses says nothing of the Genealogy of Uz, or of his Posterity. But the Arabians tell us, that Uz, or Hus, had Ad for a Son, who was Father to a People called Adites, in Arabia the Happy. These People falling into Idolatry, God was provoked at this Obstinacy, and destroyed them in the manner that we have related, under HEBER. See the Bibliotheca Orientalis of M. d’ Herbelot, p. 460.
Josephus,2 and St. Jerome think,3 that Uz the Son of Aram founded the City of Damascus, and that his Descendants settled in the Trachonitis, which is near the Plain of Damascus. Bochart is of opinion, that the Husites peopled the Valley that lies between Libanus and Antilibanus, called by the Arabians, Alganta, or the Country of Gauth, or of Hus.
The Land of Uz. Eusebius and St. Jerome assure us, that according to the Tradition of the People of Palestine, and round about it, the City of Astaroth-Carnaim was the Place of Job’s Habitation. But Astaroth-Carnaim was beyond Jordan, between Mahanaim and Esdrai, upon the Jabok. Others will have him to a [Hebrew] Daia, have lived in the City of Bozra, the Capital of Idumea, and Job’s Mother is thought to have been of this same City. Others think him to have dwelt at the famous City of Emah, or Hamah, which is often mentioned in Scripture. It was in Syria upon the Orontes. Others believe he lived at Hama, which is thought to be the same as Apamea, in the same Country, and upon the same River. All this is upon Supposition, that Job was one of the Descendants of Uz the Son of Aram.
As it is our opinion, that Job may very well be the same as Jobab, mentioned in Genesis, and in the Chronicles, we also Genesis xxxvi. 32. 1 Chron. i. 43, 44.think the Country of Job was the City of Dinnabah, which the Scripture assigns for Jobab’s Dwelling-place. But Dinnabah or Denabah, according to Eusebius and St. Jerome, was in the Country of Moab, between Areopolis and Heshbon. Ptolemy places a City of this Name in Palmyrenæ.
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