URIA ("My light is Jahweh"?). — A man of war, one of the thirty gibborim of David (2 Sam 23:39). He was of Hittite origin; his name may be an adaptation of a foreign name.
Brave and loyal, he was doubly harmed by David’s sin (ibid. 11). He was at war against the Ammonites when the king committed adultery with his wife Bathsheba (q.v.). Summoned hastily to Jerusalem under a pretext, so that after a few days at home the newborn child might be considered his, he unwittingly thwarted the king’s plans and spent the night at the palace guardhouse. David then sent him back to the field, bearing a letter to Joab (q.v.) with instructions to abandon him to danger in battle during the siege of Rabbah of the Ammonites. He died fighting.
Other Urias mentioned in the Bible: a priest in the time of Ahaz (Isa 8:2; 2 Kgs 16:10–16); a courageous prophet contemporary with Jeremiah (Jer 26:20–23); one or two priests in the time of Ezra (Ezra 8:33; Neh 8:4).