A Message about Elam (49:34–39)

Concerning Elam (49:34). Elam was located in the fertile hill country east of the Tigris River. It lay opposite southern Babylonia and occupied what is known as Iran today. Susa was its capital and most important city. The Elamites and the ancient Medes occupied this territory during the seventh century B.C. They were known as skilled archers. From the seventh century B.C. on they were in constant conflict with the Assyrians. In 645 B.C. Ashurbanipal decisively defeated the Elamites, but by 612 B.C. Assyria collapsed and Elam came under the control of the Medes. We have no extrabiblical evidence of Elam’s existence as a nation during the Neo-Babylonian period. Jeremiah is the only Hebrew prophet to pronounce an oracle against this faraway country.

Elamite or Persian archers

Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the Louvre

Bow of Elam (49:35). Breaking the bow of Elam is a readily understood image for Elam. The bow can also represent strength (see comments on 48:25).

I will bring against Elam the four winds (49:36). The metaphor of strong winds sent by the deity is one of total judgment and destruction. There are similar expressions in The Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur, a text probably composed in the late third or early second millennium B.C. In that text we read of the god Enlil unleashing the burning, evil winds that will devastate the land.409