Identification uncertain and disputed among scholars. The most widely accepted tradition links Uz to the region of Edom, now southern Jordan. An alternative hypothesis places Uz farther north, in the region of Bashan, near the present border between Syria and Jordan. No specific archaeological site has been confirmed as biblical Uz.

Uz

Meaning
The name Uz is linked to an ancestor of the region's inhabitants, possibly Uz, a descendant of Shem, or Uz, a descendant of Seir, and its exact meaning in Hebrew is uncertain. The land of Uz is remembered above all as the setting of the book of Job, where a righteous man faced extreme suffering and still did not abandon his faith in God.
About the place

The land of Uz is known above all as the setting of the book of Job, one of the most profound texts in the Bible on suffering, faith, and the justice of God.

The biblical text gives no precise coordinates, and the location of Uz remains uncertain among scholars. The most widely accepted tradition links it to the region of Edom, south of the Dead Sea.

It was in Uz that Job, described as righteous and God fearing, lived in great prosperity before losing, in a single day, his possessions, his children, and his health.

There came his friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, who tried to explain Job’s suffering and ended up being rebuked by God for not having spoken the truth about him.

The land of Uz also appears in Lamentations and Jeremiah, associated with the people of Edom and the nations that would face divine judgment.

In the end, God spoke to Job out of a storm and afterward restored to him, twofold, everything he had lost. Uz thus became marked not only by sorrow, but also by the hope of one who trusts God even without complete answers.

Key verses

In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

Job 1:1

and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Job 1:21

Rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom, you who live in the land of Uz. But to you also the cup will be passed; you will be drunk and stripped naked.

Lamentations 4:21

What happened here

Job’s upright life and prosperity

Job lived in Uz as an upright, God-fearing man, with a large family and many possessions.

Job 1:1-3

The loss of everything in a single day

A test permitted by God took from Job his children, his flocks and later his health, yet he did not sin against God.

Job 1:13-19; 2:7-8

The visit and speeches of the three friends

Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar came to Uz to comfort Job, but their speeches became a long debate about the cause of suffering.

Job 2:11-13

God’s answer and Job’s restoration

The Lord spoke to Job from a storm, rebuked the three friends for not speaking the truth and restored to Job twice what he had before.

Job 38:1; 42:7-10
People linked to this place
J

Job

Lived uprightly, suffered and remained faithful

J

Job’s wife

Suggested that Job curse God

E

Eliphaz

Was Job’s friend and the first to speak

B

Bildad

Was Job’s friend and defended retribution

Z

Zophar

Was Job’s friend and the harshest speaker

E

Elihu

Was a young man and spoke last

Books where it appears

Job

The entire narrative takes place in the land of Uz, Job 1:1

Lamentations

Uz is mentioned in a prophetic lament over Edom, Lamentations 4:21

Jeremiah

The kings of the land of Uz appear among the nations judged, Jeremiah 25:20

The place today
The place today

The exact location of the land of Uz is uncertain. The most widely accepted tradition links it to the region of Edom, now southern Jordan. Another hypothesis places it farther north, in the region of Bashan, near the border between present-day Syria and Jordan.

No specific archaeological site has been identified with certainty as biblical Uz. The region is now an arid, mountainous territory, inhabited mainly by an Arab Muslim population.

Modern Jordan has small Christian communities amid a Muslim majority. Pray that the God who revealed himself to Job amid the storm may continue revealing himself to the Jordanian people.

Pray for this nation today: Jordânia

Other places

Biblical place

Judah