Ur

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 11:28,31Abraham

The oldest king of Ur known to us is Ur-Ba'u (servant of the goddess Ba'u), as Hommel reads the name, or Ur-Gur, as others read it. He lived some twenty-eight hundred years B.C., and took part in building the famous temple of the moon-god Sin in Ur itself. The illustration here given represents his cuneiform inscription, written in the Sumerian language, and stamped upon every brick of the temple in Ur. It reads: "Ur-Ba'u, king of Ur, who built the temple of the moon-god."

"Ur was consecrated to the worship of Sin, the Babylonian moon-god. It shared this honour, however, with another city, and this city was Haran, or Harran. Harran was in Mesopotamia, and took its name from the highroad which led through it from the east to the west. The name is Babylonian, and bears witness to its having been founded by a Babylonian king. The same witness is still more decisively borne by the worship paid in it to the Babylonian moon-god and by its ancient temple of Sin. Indeed, the temple of the moon-god at Harran was perhaps even more famous in the Assyrian and Babylonian world than the temple of the moon-god at Ur.

"Between Ur and Harran there must, consequently, have been a close connection in early times, the record of which has not yet been recovered. It may be that Harran owed its foundation to a king of Ur; at any rate the two cities were bound together by the worship of the same deity, the closest and most enduring bond of union that existed in the ancient world. That Terah should have migrated from Ur to Harran, therefore, ceases to be extraordinary. If he left Ur at all, it was the most natural place to which to go. It was like passing from one court of a temple into another.

"Such a remarkable coincidence between the Biblical narrative and the evidence of archaeological research cannot be the result of chance. The narrative must be historical; no writer of late date, even if he were a Babylonian, could have invented a story so exactly in accordance with what we now know to have been the truth. For a story of the kind to have been the invention of Palestinian tradition is equally impossible. To the unprejudiced mind there is no escape from the conclusion that the history of the migration of Terah from Ur to Harran is founded on fact" (Sayce).

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Of the Chaldees ( Genesis 11:28;  Genesis 11:31;  Genesis 15:7;  Nehemiah 9:7), from which Terah, Abraham, and Lot were called. In Mesopotamia ( Acts 7:2). Now Mugheir (a ruined temple of large bitumen bricks, which also "mugheir" means, namely, Um Mugheir "mother of bitumen"), on the right bank of the Euphrates, near its junction with the Shat el Hie from the Tigris; in Chaldaea proper. Called Hur by the natives, and on monuments Ur. The most ancient city of the older Chaldaea. Its bricks bear the name of the earliest monumental kings, "Urukh king of Ur"; his kingdom extended as far N. as Niffer. The royal lists on the monuments enumerate Babylonian kings from Urukh (2230 B.C., possibly the Orchanus of Ovid, Met. 4:212) down to Nabonid (540 B.C.) the last. The temple was sacred to 'Urki, the moon goddess; Ilgi son of Urukh completed it.

For two centuries it was the capital, and always was held sacred. One district was "Ibra," perhaps related to "Hebrew," Abraham's designation. Ur was also a cemetery and city of tombs, doubtless because of its sacred character, from whence the dead were brought to it from vast distances for 1,800 years. Eupolemos (in Eusebius, Praep. Ev. 9:17) refers to Ur as "the moon worshipping (kamarine; kamar being Arabic for moon) city." The derivation from Ur, "fire," led to the Koran and Talmud legends that Abraham miraculously escaped out of the flames into which Nimrod or other idolatrous persecutors threw him.

Ur lies six miles distant from the present coarse of the Euphrates, and 125 from the sea; though it is thought it was anciently a maritime town, and that its present inland site is due to the accumulation of alluvium (?). The buildings are of the most archaic kind, consisting of low mounds enclosed within an enceinte, on most sides perfect, an oval space 1,000 yards long by 800 broad. The temple is thoroughly Chaldaean in type, in stages of which two remain, of brick partly sunburnt, partly baked, cemented with bitumen.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Ur, Light, land of Light?  Genesis 11:28;  Genesis 11:31;  Genesis 15:7;  Nehemiah 9:7. Some have identified the city Ur with Edessa, the modern Orfah. Others suppose it to be Warka. But late explorations identify it with Mugheir, where considerable ruins exist. It is situated on the right bank of the Euphrates near the marshes, and in periods of inundation the ruins are surrounded by water. They are of an oval shape, and measure about half a mile from north to south. The temple ruins are in the form of a parallelogram 198 by 133 feet. The lower story is supported by thick buttresses; and the height of the whole is 70 feet. The exterior is faced with red kiln-baked bricks; and the interior is constructed of bricks burnt or sun-dried. The name of Urukh, an early king, 2230 b.c., has been found upon the bricks; and the place was probably the capital of this monarch. The temple was dedicated to the moon-god Hurki: hence perhaps the town derived its name.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The country of Terah, and the birthplace of Abraham,  Genesis 11:28,31   15:7 . It is usually called "Ur of the Chaldees,"  Hebrews 9:7   Acts 7:4; and is located, with strong probability, in the north-west part of Mesopotamia. The city of Orfah, to which the Jews make pilgrimages as the birthplace of Abraham, is a flourishing town of 30,000 inhabitants, seventy-eight miles south-west of Diarbekir. Some, however, place Ur in Lower Chaldea, at extensive ruins now called Warka, in latitude 31 degrees 19' North, longitude 45 degrees 40' East.

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

The ancient city of Ur was in the land of Chaldea, which was part of a larger territory commonly known as Babylon. Though it is mentioned in the Bible only as the place from which Abraham originally came ( Genesis 11:27-31;  Genesis 15:7;  Nehemiah 9:7), it was an important city in the ancient world. A powerful Sumerian dynasty had been centred there until overthrown by Amorites about 2000 BC. (For further details see Amorites ; Babylon .)

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 12:1  Acts 7:2AbrahamBabylonChaldeesMesopotamia

David M. Fleming

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The memorable spot from whence the Lord called Abraham when an idolater. Sweet thought to the believer! It is JEHOVAH'S grace, and not man's deserts, even in the instance of an Abraham, that is the sole cause of salvation. Some make Ur to mean light or fire, from Aor. ( Genesis 11:28)

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Gur. (Abode). Gur, The Going Up To. An ascent or rising ground, at which Ahaziah received his death-blow, while flying from Jehu, after the slaughter of Joram.  2 Kings 9:27.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

UR . Father of one of David’s heroes (  1 Chronicles 11:35 ).

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Father of Eliphal one of David's mighty men.  1 Chronicles 11:35 .

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) Alt. of Ure

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ûr ( אוּר , 'ūr , "flame"; Codex Vaticanus Σθύρ , Sthúr  ; Codex Sinaiticus Ωρά , Ōrá ): Father of Eliphal, one of David's "mighty men," in   1 Chronicles 11:35; in the parallel  2 Samuel 23:34 called "Ahasbai."

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Ur, of the Chaldees, was the native place of the family of Abraham, whence he migrated first to Haran and then to Canaan (;;;; ). It is supposed to be a district identical with the modern pashalic of Urfa, to which there belong several districts, among others Rouha, which is the ancient Edessa.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Bibliography Information McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Ur'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/u/ur.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.