Jeremiah 49:34

The word of the Lord that came unto Jeremiah the prophet against Elam,.... The Persians, as it is commonly understood, who descended from Elam the son of Shem, Genesis 10:22; according to Josephus w; but rather the country of Elymais is here designed; which, though in the times of Cyrus, was added to, and made a part of, the Persian empire, yet was a country distinct both from Persia and Media; and as such is spoken of by Pliny x; though as near unto Persia, and bordering on Media; according to Stephanus y, the Elymaites were a country that belonged to the Assyrians; and so Strabo a places the Elymaeans in Aturia or Assyria; and it seems very manifest that Elam served under Sennacherib, king of Assyria, when he besieged Jerusalem,

Isaiah 22:6; and afterwards fell into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and became subject to him, which is the calamity here threatened them; for certain it is, that, in Belshazzar's time, Shushan in Elam was the royal seat of the kings of Babylon, Daniel 8:2; now this prophecy against Elam was delivered out

in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah; perhaps in the first year of his reign, ten or eleven years before the destruction of Jerusalem; how long before it had its accomplishment is not certain:

saying: as follows:

w Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 4. x Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 25, 26, 27. y De urbibus apud Cocceium in loc. a Geograph. l. 16. in principio, 507.