ulai Summary and Overview

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.

U'LAI (strong water?), a river of Susians, on whose banks Daniel saw his vision of the ram and he-goat. Dan 8:2-16. It is doubtless the Eulaeus of the Greeks and Romans, a large stream in the vicinity of Susa (Shushan). Recent explorations have shown that the river Choaspes (Kerkhan) divides about 20 miles above Susa. The eastern branch, which received the Shapur and fell into the Karan, 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.

A river near Shushan, by the banks of which Daniel saw the vision of the ram and the he goat (Daniel 8:2; Daniel 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 Daniel 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.