(U·riʹah) [My Light Is Jehovah].

1. The Hittite husband of Bath-sheba. Uriah was one of David’s foreign warriors. (2Sa 23:39; 1Ch 11:41) His words, conduct, marriage to a Jewess, and residence in Jerusalem close to the king’s palace all suggest that he adopted the worship of Jehovah God as a circumcised proselyte.​—2Sa 11:3, 6-11.

While Uriah was engaged in the battle against Ammon at Rabbah, David committed adultery with his wife Bath-sheba, about which Uriah never learned. David then sent and had Uriah come to Jerusalem, whereupon the king asked him about the progress of the war and sent him out to go to his home so that his wife’s child might appear to be Uriah’s. However, Uriah refused to go there because the army was out in the field. (De 23:9-11; compare 1Sa 21:5.) Even when David made him drunk, he still refused to sleep at home. (2Sa 11:1-13) David’s crime against Uriah then doubled, for David sent him back to the war with instructions to Joab that he should maneuver Uriah’s death in battle.​—2Sa 11:14-26.

2. A priest who witnessed Isaiah’s writing the name of his son Maher-shalal-hash-baz on a tablet. (Isa 8:1, 2) Uriah’s name is elsewhere spelled Urijah.​—2Ki 16:10; see URIJAH No. 1.

3. Presumably a priest, one who stood at Ezra’s right when he read from the Law to the returned exiles assembled at the Water Gate in Jerusalem.​—Ne 8:1-4.