Jeremiah 49:34
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,
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.