Ulai
1:
ULAI (PLACE) [Heb ˒ûlāy (אוּלָי)]. The river beside which Daniel received his vision of the two-horned ram and the he-goat (Dan 8:2, 16). It flowed past the N section of ancient Susa, the capital of Elam which later became the winter capital for the Persians. Modern scholars have determined that the Ulai was actually an artificial irrigation canal, starting about twenty miles NW of ancient Susa at the Choaspes River (modern Kerkha), and extending in a southeasterly direction to the Coprates River (modern Abdizful, Waterman 1947: 319). The canal was known as u-la-a in Akkadian sources (see Parpola 1970: 366 for references) and Eulaeus by classical authors (Pliny, HN vi.27). Ashurbanipal took credit for making its waters red with the blood of his enemies in 640 b.c.
Some have argued that the word translated “river” or “canal” in Dan 8:2, 3 and 6 (˒ûbal) is a corruption for the Akkadian loanword abullu (“city gate”), known in various forms in Mishnaic Hebrew, Targumic Aramaic, and Syriac (Hartmann and Di Lella Daniel AB, 223–24; Ginsberg 1948: 57). The LXX, Syriac and Vg support this reading. Thus, Daniel would have received his vision, not beside the banks of the Ulai, but at “the Ulai Gate” in Susa (contrast RSV with NJB at Dan 8:2). This gate presumably opened onto a road leading to the canal N of the city. The unusual expression bên ˒ûlay in v 16 has been understood as “between the gate” based on a variant in Theodotion (Hartman and Di Lella Daniel AB, 227). Lacocque takes ˒ûlay in v 2 as a wordplay on its homonym meaning “perhaps” as an expression of hope or prayer. In this way, the name of the river (or gate) was carefully chosen to express the possibility that the exiles may experience a miraculous reversal of their situation (Daniel CAT, 157).
Bibliography
Ginsberg, H. L. 1948. Studies in Daniel. New York.
Parpola, S. 1970. Neo-Assyrian Toponyms. AOAT 6. Kevelaer/Neukirchen-Vluyn.
Waterman, L. 1947. A Note on Daniel 8:2. JBL 66: 319–20.
Bill T. Arnold
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (6:721). New York: Doubleday.
2:
Ulai — the Eulaus of the Greeks; a river of Susiana. It was probably the eastern branch of the Choasper (Kerkhan), which divided into two branches some 20 miles above the city of Susa. Hence Daniel (8:2,16) speaks of standing “between the banks of Ulai”, i.e., between the two streams of the divided river.
Easton, M. (1996, c1897). Easton's Bible dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
3:
ULAI River near the Persian capital city of Susa where Daniel received a vision concerning the end times (Dn 8:2–16). It is likely the same as the Eulaeus, which is described by both Greek and Roman geographers as a stream that flowed to the west of the citadel of Susa.
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (1278). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
4:
U´LAI (ūʹlī). A river that flowed S from central Iran through the old Persian imperial city of Susa. It was there in vision that Daniel saw the revelation of the ram and goat (Dan. 8:2, 16). e.h.m.
Unger, M. F., Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., & Unger, M. F. (1988). The new Unger's Bible dictionary. Revision of: Unger's Bible dictionary. 3rd ed. c1966. (Rev. and updated ed.). Chicago: Moody Press.
5:
ULAI. The canal or river flowing E of Susa in Elam (SW Persia) where Daniel heard a man’s voice (Dn. 8:16). The river (Heb. ’ûlāi; Assyr. Ulai; classic Eulaeus) has changed its course in modern times, and the present Upper Kherkhah and Lower Karun (Pasitigris) rivers may then have been a single stream flowing into the delta at the N of the Persian Gulf. The river is illustrated in the Assyrian reliefs showing Ashurbanipal’s attack on Susa in 646 bc (R. D. Barnett, Assyrian Palace Reliefs, 1960, plates 118–127). d.j.w.
Wood, D. R. W., Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996, c1982, c1962). New Bible Dictionary. Includes index. (electronic ed. of 3rd ed.) (1218). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
6:
Ulai (o̅o̅ʹlī), a river in the Babylonian province of Elam beside which Daniel saw himself in a vision (Dan. 8:2). Of the three streams near Susa (Shushan), the capital city of Babylonia, the Eulaeus is probably the one referred to. It flows near Susa before joining the Chospes River. See also Shushan.
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper's Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) (1104). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
7:
Ulai (Heb. ˒ûlay)
A river in the province of Elam, near the Persian capital of Susa, where Daniel saw himself in his vision of the ram and the he-goat (Dan. 8:2, 16). Mentioned in an Assyrian inscription ca. 640 b.c.e. (Akk. U-la-a) and called Eulaeus by classical writers, the Ulai was actually a canal connecting the rivers Choaspes (modern Kerkha) and Coprates (modern Abdizful).
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (1345). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
