Uriel

U'riël (Heb. Uriel', אוּרַיאֵל fire [or light] of God; Sept. Οùριήλ), the name of three Hebrews.

1. A Kohathite Levite, son of Tahath and father of Uzziah (1Ch 6:24 [9]; apparently the same in Zephaniah (ver. 36). B.C. cir. 1550. SEE SAMUEL.

2. Chief of the Kohathites of the family of Korah in the reign of David, who assisted, together with one hundred and twenty of his brethren, in bringing the ark from the house of Obededom (1Ch 15:5,11). B.C. 1043.

3. Uriel of Gibeah was the father of Maachah, or Michaiah, the favorite wife of Rehoboam, and mother of Abijah (2Ch 13:2). B.C. ante 973. In 11:20 she is called "Maachah the daughter of Absalom;" and Josephus (Ant. 8, 10,1) explains this by saying that her mother was Tamar, Absalom's daughter. Rashi gives a long note to the effect that Michaiah was called Maachah after the name of her daughter-in-law, the mother of Asa, who was a woman of renown, and that her father's name was Uriel Abishalom. There is no indication, however, that Absalom, like Solomon, had another name, although in the Targum of R. Joseph on Chronicles it is said that the father of Maachah was called Uriel, that the name of Absalom might not be mentioned. SEE MAACHAH.

4. Uriel is also named in the Apocrypha (2 Esdr. 4:1, 36; 5, 20; 10:28) as an angel or archangel; and in the book of Enoch he is described as "the angel of thunder and lightning" (ch. 20), and as being "placed over all the lights of heaven" (75:3).