Where was the land of Uz?

Question

Accepted Answer

The land of Uz, Job's home, is not located by the Bible, and two regions compete: Edom and the desert south-east of the Dead Sea, where the map point stands, about 120 km from Jerusalem in a straight line, and the Hauran south of Damascus, on the edge of the Syrian desert, where the tomb of Job was shown in antiquity. The book opens: “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job.” The case for Edom is made by Lamentations, which addresses the “daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz”, by the Uz who is a grandson of Seir the Horite in Genesis 36, and by Job's friend Eliphaz, who comes from Teman, a district of Edom. The case for the north is made by the Uz who is a son of Aram in Genesis 10 and a nephew of Abraham in the family of Nahor in Genesis 22, both pointing to the Aramaean country; Josephus says that Uz founded Trachonitis and Damascus. Jeremiah lists “all the kings of the land of Uz” between Egypt and the Philistines, which helps little. The raiders of Job's story, Sabeans and Chaldeans, point to Arabia and Mesopotamia and could reach either region. In the late fourth century the pilgrim Egeria visited the tomb of Job at Carneas in the Hauran, usually placed at Sheikh Saad, where a shrine of Job still stands. The map shows Edom, following Lamentations, and lists the other reading on the place card; the book of Job itself gives no date.