Yonatan ben Uziel was a Tanna of the first generation who lived during the Second Temple period, a few decades before its destruction. He was the greatest of the disciples of Hillel the Elder: the Talmud relates that Hillel had eighty disciples, "the greatest of them was Yonatan ben Uziel, and the least of them Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai."

He is the author of Targum Yonatan, the Aramaic translation and interpretation of the books of the Prophets. The Talmud (Megillah 3a) teaches that he composed it from the mouths of the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi; the Land of Israel then quaked, and when a heavenly voice asked who had revealed God's secrets to mankind, he answered that he had done so not for his own honor nor for that of his family but for God's honor, so that disputes should not multiply in Israel. He sought to translate the Writings as well, but a heavenly voice stopped him. His Targum is printed in most editions of the Prophets, including Mikraot Gedolot.

Tradition records that when he sat and studied Torah, any bird that flew over him was immediately burned; Rashi explains that the ministering angels gathered around him to hear his words of Torah.

According to tradition he never married; another view holds that he was married but childless. His burial place is not mentioned in rabbinic literature: a testimony from the end of the eleventh century places it in the Dalton area, and since the early thirteenth century it has been shown at Amuka in the Galilee, near Safed.

His grave at Amuka is one of the most visited tombs of tzaddikim. Many come especially on 26 Sivan, by tradition the day of his passing, to pray above all for finding a spouse and for children.