Urijah

Urijah (meaning: the LORD is my light) is the name of three persons in the Old Testament. (1) A high priest under King Ahaz of Judah who, at the king's direction, constructed an altar in Jerusalem modeled on one Ahaz had seen in Damascus, and performed the offerings on it before the legitimate bronze altar of the Lord — an act representing the religious apostasy of Ahaz's reign (2 Kings 16:10–16). Isaiah took him as a faithful witness in a legal matter (Isa. 8:2). (2) A prophet son of Shemaiah from Kirjath-jearim who prophesied against Jerusalem and Judah in the same terms as Jeremiah during the reign of Jehoiakim. When Jehoiakim sought to kill him, Urijah fled to Egypt but was extradited and executed, his body thrown into a common grave (Jer. 26:20–23). (3) A priest who stood with Ezra when he read the law to the assembled people after the return from exile (Neh. 8:4).