The memorable river near the city of Shushan, from the banks of which Daniel heard the man’s voice. (Dan. 8. 16.) When we consider what is said of the voice of the Lord God, walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Gen. 3: 8; when we mark the same grace manifested upon many occasions during the Old Testament dispensation, 1 Sam. 3: 4; 1 Kings xix. 9; and when we call to mind, the numberless sweet and gracious tokens of the Lord Jesus, manifested to his servants in the early ages, before he openly tabernacledinsubstance of our flesh: may we not venture to suppose this voice to have been Him, who in after ages openly tabernacled among us? I only humbly propose the question. I by no means presume to decide upon it. Some have called this river Ubal, Ulai; because Ubal is the name of the river itself, and Ulai defines the particular one by name.
U´lai a river which flowed by Susa [SHUSHAN] into the united stream of the Tigris and Euphrates. It is mentioned in Dan 8:2. It is called by Pliny Eulaeus, but is described by Greek writers under the name of Choaspes, and is now known by the name of Kerah, called by the Turks Karasu. This river is formed by the junction of many streams in the province of Ardelan, in Kurdistan. It runs through the plain of Kermanshah, and being greatly increased in magnitude by the junction of two small rivers, proceeds with a furious course towards Khuzistan, receiving numerous tributaries in its passage. It passes on the west of the ruins of Shus [Susa: see SHUSHAN], and enters the Shat-ul-Arab about twenty miles below Korna.
Or Euleus, a river which ran by the city Shushan, in Persia, on the bank of which Daniel had a famous vision, Dan 8:2,16 . It was the Choaspes of the Greeks, and is now called the Kerkhah; but appears to have had in ancient times a second channel, still traceable, nine hundred feet wide and twenty feet deep, and flowing along the east side of Shushan. The two channels emptied their waters through the river now called the Karun into the Shat-el-Arab, the united stream of the Euphrates and Tigris, twenty miles below their junction at Korna.\par
U’la-i. (pure water). Ulai is mentioned by Daniel, Dan 8:2; Dan 8:16, as a river near to Susa, where he saw his vision of the ram and the he-goat. It has been generally identified with the Eulaeus of the Greek and Roman geographers, a large stream in the immediate neighborhood of that city.
The Eulseus has been by many identified with the Choaspes, which is undoubtedly the modern Kerkhah, an affluent of the Tigris, flowing into it a little below Kurnah. Recent surveys show that the Choarspes once divided into two streams about 20 miles above Susa. The eastern was the Ulai. This bifurcation explains Dan 8:16.
A river near Shushan, by the banks of which Daniel saw the vision of the ram and the he goat (Dan 8:2; Dan 8:16). The ancient Eulaeus or Choaspes, for these are two divisions of one river, bifurcating at Paipul, 20 miles N.W. of Shushan; the eastern branch Eulaeus, the western branch Choaspes (now Kerkhah) flowing S.W. into the Tigris. The eastern branch passes E. of Shushan and at Ahwaz falls into the Kuran (Pasitigris) which flows on to the Persian gulf. The undivided stream was sometimes called Eulaeus, but usually Choaspes.
In Pehlevi Eulaeus or Aw-Halesh means "pure water." Strabo (15:3, section 22) says the Persian kings drank only of this water at their table, and that it was lighter than ordinary water. The stream is now dry but the valley traceable, 900 ft. wide, 12 ft. to ft. 20 deep. A sculpture from Sennaeherib’s palace at Koyunjik represents Shushan in the time of his grandson Asshur-bani-pal, its conqueror, and the stream bifurcated. In Dan 8:16 Daniel says, "I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai," referring either to the bifurcation or to the river and one of its chief channels, for Eulaeus by artificial canals surrounded the Shushan citadel. The upper Kerkhah and the lower Kuran were anciently united and were viewed as one stream.
Ulai (û’lâi or û’la-î), strong water? A river of Susiana, on whose banks Daniel saw his vision of the ram and he-goat. Dan 8:2-16. Recent explorations have shown that the river Choaspes (Kerkhah) divides about 20 miles above Susa. The eastern branch, which received the Shapur and fell into the Kuran, was probably the Ulai. This bifurcation of the stream explains the otherwise difficult passage, "I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai," Dan 8:16—that is, between the banks of the two streams of that divided river.
[Ula’i]
River flowing near to the city of Shushan where Daniel saw himself in a vision. Dan 8:2; Dan 8:16. It is judged to be the Eulaeus of the Greeks and Romans. Identified by some with the Kerkhah, an affluent of the Tigris, and this agrees with the upper Eulaeus. Others have traced it to the Kuran, another affluent of the Tigris, and this agrees with the lower Eulaeus; but at one part a branch of the former once ran into the latter.
ULAI.—A large river of Elam, emptying into the Persian Gulf. According to Dan 8:2; Dan 8:16 and the Assyrian inscriptions, it flowed past the city of Shushan (Susa). It is the modern Karûn, which, however, does not now flow close to the site of Susa, but to the east of it. Cf. also Hydaspes.
J. F. McCurdy.
1. The Name and Its Forms:
A river which, running through the province of Elam, flowed through Shushan or Susa. It was from “between” this river that Daniel (Dan 8:16) heard a voice, coming apparently from the waters which flowed between its two banks.
2. Present Names and Course:
Notwithstanding that the rivers of Elam have often changed their courses, there is but little doubt that the Ulai is the Kerkhah, which, rising in the Persian plain near Nehavend (there called the
3. Changed Bed at Susa:
In ancient times it flowed at the foot of the citadel of Susa, but its bed is now about 1 1/4 miles to the West. The date of this change of course (during which a portion of the ruins of Susa was carried away) is uncertain, but it must have been later than the time of Alexander the Great. The stream’s greatest volume follows the melting of the snows in the mountains, and floods ensue if this coincides with the advent of heavy rain. Most to be dreaded are the rare occasions when it unites with the Ab-e-Diz.
4. Assyrian References:
The Ulai (Assyrian
Literature
See Delegation en Perse: Memoires, I, Recherches Archeologiques, 25 ff.