Ansbach to Prussia (2nd of December 1791), entered the Prussian judicial service, and died, shortly after his appointment as Landrichter, at Ansbach on the 12th of May 1796. Uz wrote a number of graceful lyrics in Gleim's style, and some patriotic odes; he is the typical representative of the rococo period in German poetry. In 1749 the first collection of his Lyrische Gedichte was anonymously published. He also wrote, in alexandrines, Der Sieg des Liebesgottes (1753), a close imitation of Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock, and a didactic poem, Versuch über die Kunst stets fröhlich zu sein (1760).
A complete edition of Uz's works—Sämtliche Poetische Werke—was published at Leipzig, 1768; a new edition (Vienna, 1804), which has been often reprinted. A critical edition was published by A. Sauer in 1890. See Henriette Feuerbach, Uz und Cronegk (1866), Briefe von Uz an einen Freund aus den Jahren 1753-82 (published by A. Henneberger (1866) and E. Petzet, Johann Peter Uz (Ansbach, 1896).
UZ. The “land of Uz” (ארץ עוץ) is best known as the
scene of the story of Job. Its precise location is a matter of
uncertainty, opinion being divided between a position N. of
Palestine (“ Aram Naharaim ”) and one to the S.E., in the
neighbourhood of Edom. In favour of the former are the references
in Gen. x. 23, xxii. 21, the inclusion of Tob among “the
children of the East,” the possibility that Bildad the Shuhite
(cf. Gen. xxv. 2, 6) belonged to the Sūḥu, a people living on the
right bank of the Euphrates, and the description of Elihu as a
Buzite (xxxii. 2). Whether the name Uz is found or not in
the cuneiform inscriptions is disputed. In favour of the S.E.
position we have the description of Elihu as of the family
of Ram[1] which (1 Chron. ii.) was a distinctly southern people,
the fact that Eliphaz was a Temanite (i.e. he came from Edom,
cf. Gen. xxxvi. 4) and the references in Gen. xxxvi. 28 and Lam.
iv. 21. The mention of Uz in Jer. xxv. 20 is probably a gloss.
While Edom and Uz are not to be identified, the traditional
association of “wisdom” with Edom may incline us to place
the Uz of Job in its neighbourhood rather than in that of
the Euphrates. The tradition which places Job's home in
Hauran has no value. It is worth noting that the Septuagint
the adjective Αὐσῖτις, which points to a pronunciation
Auṣ =Arabic Auḍ, the name of a god whose worship
was widely spread and might therefore be readily borne by
tribes or attached to districts in several regions.
UZÈS, a town of southern France, capital of an arrondissement
in the department of Gard, finely situated on an eminence
above the Alzon, 16 m. N. by E. of Nîmes by road. Pop. (1906)
4008. Uzès, the seat of an episcopal see from the 5th century
to 1790, has a cathedral almost destroyed by the Protestants
during the religious wars and rebuilt in the 17th and 18th
centuries, but still flanked by a round tower of five storeys
lighted by arched openings and dating from the 12th century.
The Duché, a château of powerful lords, at first viscounts, and
in 1565 dukes, of Uzès, preserves a donjon originally of the
12th century; the main building, flanked by a Gothic chapel,
is Renaissance in style. The most ancient structure in the
town is a crypt beneath a private house, attributed to the early
centuries of the Christian era. The sub-prefecture and the
tribunal of first instance occupy the old bishop's palace (17th
century). There is a statue of Admiral Brueys (1753–1798),
a native of the town. Uzès has a communal college for boys,
and carries on the manufacture of silk, bricks and fireproof
earthenware, and liquorice, and trade in the truffles for which
the district is noted.
UZHITSE (also written Užice and Ushitsa), the capital of
the Uzhitse department of Servia. As implied by its name,
which may be translated “the narrow places,” Uzhitse is built
in a narrow and lonely glen amongst the south-western mountains,
1385 ft. above the sea. The surrounding heights, though
rugged and barren, produce some of the finest Servian tobacco.
Weaving is taught in the girls' school, and fairs are held for the
sale of farm produce; but the absence of a railway and the
badness of the roads retard commerce. Uzhitse possesses a
court of first instance and a prefecture. Despite the prevailing
poverty, it has also a real-school with good buildings, founded
in 1865, and attended by about 300 pupils in 1900. The houses
in Uzhitse are quite unlike those of more prosperous Servian
towns, being tall, narrow structures of timber, frequently
blackened by the damp. Pop. (1900) about 7000.
Early in the 13th century Uzhitse was the seat of St Sava, the first archbishop, and the patron saint of Servia. The archbishopric was soon removed to Ipek, in Old Servia; but after the Turkish garrison had been expelled in 1862 the city became once more the head of a diocese. At Arilye, 13 m. E.S.E., there is a 13th-century church, dedicated to St Aril, who, according to tradition, was martyred in the 9th century by unconverted Serbs. On the Bosnian frontier, 15 m. W. by N., are the mineral springs of Bayina Bashta (i.e. “the Garden Bath”), with Racha monastery close by; and in the neighbourhood is Dobrinye, the home of the Obrenovich family, with a church built by Milosh Obrenovich, called “the Liberator of Servia” (1818–1839).
UZZIAH (Heb. for “Yah[weh] is [my] strength ”), more correctly Azariah (Hebrew for “Yah[weh] helps ”), son of
Amaziah, grandson of Joash I., and king of Judah (2 Kings
xiv. 22, xv. 1–7). Of his long reign of fifty-two years little is
recorded. He recovered Elath at the head of the Aelanitic
Gulf, evidently in the course of a successful campaign against
Edom (a possible reference in Isa. xvi. 1); we read further in
2 Chron. xxvi. of great wars against Philistines, Arabians and
Meunim, of building operations in Jerusalem (probably after
the attack by Joash), and of political and social reforms.
The prosperity which Judah enjoyed during this period (middle
of 8th century) is illustrated by the writings of Amos and by the
earliest prophecies of Isaiah (e.g. ii. 6 sqq.). In his old age
Uzziah was a leper (2 Kings xv. 5), and the later history (2 Chron.
xxvi. 16 sqq.) regarded this as a punishment for a ritual fault
of which the king was guilty; whilst Josephus (Ant. ix. 10. 4)
records the tradition that on the occasion of his transgression
the land was shaken by the terrible earthquake to which Amos
i. 1 and Zech. xiv. 5 refer. During Uzziah's seclusion his son
]otham acted as regent. The growing power of ]udah, however,
aroused the jealousy of Israel, which, after the death of Jeroboam
(2), had fallen on evil days (see Menahem). Jotham's
victory over Ammon (2 Chron. xxvii. 5) could only increase the
hostility, and preparations were made by Israel for an alliance
with Damascus which culminated in an attack upon Judah in
the time of Jotham's son, Ahaz (q.v.).
The identification (Schrader, McCurdy, &c.) of Azariah with Azriyau of Ja'udi, the head of a North Syrian confederation at Hamath (Hamah) overcome by Tiglath-Pileser IV. (738 B.C.), conflicts with the chronological evidence, with what is known of Uzziah's life and policy, and with the historical situations represented in the Biblical narratives (see Winckler, Alttest. Forschungen [1893], i. 1–23; S. A. Cook, Ency. Bib. col. 5244; Whitehouse, Dict. Bib. iv. p. 844 seq.; id. Isaiah, p. 9 seq.; Skinner, Kings, p. 359). On the other hand, the interrelation of events in Palestine and Syria during this period combine with the sudden prominence of Judah (under Uzziah) and the subsequent anti-Judaean and anti-Assyrian coalition (against Ahaz) to suggest that Uzziah had been supported by Assyria (cf. Winckler, Keilinschr. u. d. Alte Test., 3rd. ed., p. 262). In fact, since the Biblical evidence is admittedly incomplete, and to a certain extent insecure, the question of the identification of Azariah of Judah and Azriyau of Ja'udi may be reopened. See H. M. Haydn, Journ. of Bibl. Lit., xxviii.(1909), pp.182–199, and artt. Jews, §§ 13 (beginning), 15; Palestine, Old Test. Hist. (S. A. C.)
- ↑ Perhaps a mistake or an abbreviation for Aram.
