Uphaz

UPHAZ (ū'făz, Heb. ’ûphāz, meaning unknown). A word used of the famous gold-producing region mentioned in Jer.10.9 and Dan.10.5 (kjv). Its location is still unknown. Perhaps “Ophir” or “and fine gold” should be read instead. NIV omits the place-name in Dan.10.5.

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UPHAZ u’ făz (אוּפָ֔ז). A locality mentioned twice in the OT (Jer 10:9; Dan 10:5). Fine gold, certainly alluvial in origin, came from there. Professor D. J. Wiseman, probing the etymology, has suggested that the term may not be geographical at all, but rather a technical word for refined gold (NBD p. 1304). Another suggestion is that the word is a confusion with Ophir, a palaeographically likely situation. The Syrian Hexapla actually reads Ophir in the first of the two references.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

A gold-bearing region, mentioned in Jer 10:9; Da 10:5, otherwise unknown. Perhaps in both passages Ophir, which differs in one consonant only, should be read. In the second passage, instead of "gold of Uphaz," perhaps "gold and fine gold" (’uphaz) should be read. The Jerusalem Talmud states that there were seven kinds of gold, good gold, pure, precious, gold of Uphaz, purified, refined, and red gold of Parvaim (2Ch 3:6). That of Uphaz, which is so called from the place from which it comes, resembles "flashes of fire fed with pitch" (M. Schwab, The Talmud of Jerusalem, V, 207 f).