Elam

Elam is both a land east of Babylon and the personal name carried by several men in the post-exilic community. The land first surfaces in the Table of Nations as the firstborn son of Shem (Gen 10:22), and from there it works its way through the patriarchal narratives, the prophets' oracles against the nations, and the apocalyptic visions of Daniel before re-emerging as a family name in the genealogies and the rosters of those who returned from Babylon.

A Son of Shem

Elam stands at the head of Shem's sons in the Table of Nations: "The sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram" (Gen 10:22). The land that bore his name is therefore counted as Semitic in this opening genealogy.

A Region East of Babylon

In the days of Abram, Elam already had its own king. Chedorlaomer king of Elam led the four-king coalition that swept across the cities of the plain (Gen 14:1) and that Abram pursued by night: "against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings against the five" (Gen 14:9).

Centuries later Elam still names a province in the eastern empire. Daniel locates his vision of the ram and the goat there: "I was in Shushan the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai" (Dan 8:2).

Prophecies Concerning Elam

The prophets place Elam alongside Media, Babylon, and Assyria when they speak of the world powers under Yahweh's judgment. Isaiah's oracle commissions Elam itself as an agent of siege: "A grievous vision is declared to me; the betrayer betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media; all her sighing I have made to cease" (Isa 21:2).

Jeremiah includes Elam's kings in the cup of wrath that passes through the nations: "and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes" (Jer 25:25).

Ezekiel sees Elam laid out among the slain in the underworld: "There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit" (Ezek 32:24).

Isaiah's restoration oracle then lists Elam among the lands from which the remnant will be recovered: "the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, who will remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea" (Isa 11:11). Elam is judged in the oracles and gathered from in the recovery.

Elam as a Personal Name

Several men in the genealogies and post-exilic rosters carry the name Elam.

A Benjamite chief appears in the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 8: "and Hananiah, and Elam, and Anthothijah" (1Chr 8:24).

A Korhite Levite numbered among the gatekeepers of the temple is listed by birth-order: "Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Eliehoenai the seventh" (1Chr 26:3).

The post-exilic rolls then carry an Elam whose descendants returned from Babylon, numbered identically in both Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra reports: "The sons of Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four" (Ezra 2:7); Nehemiah confirms the same figure: "The sons of Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four" (Neh 7:12). A second wave from the same family came up with Ezra: "And of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah; and with him seventy males" (Ezra 8:7).

Alongside this Elam stands a separate ancestor distinguished as "the other Elam," whose descendants are also numbered, with the very same total: "The sons of the other Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four" (Ezra 2:31; Neh 7:34).

An Elam is also counted among the chiefs of the people who sealed the covenant under Nehemiah: "The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani" (Neh 10:14).

Finally, an Elam takes part as a singer at the dedication of the wall: "and Maaseiah, and Shemaiah, and Eleazar, and Uzzi, and Jehohanan, and Malchijah, and Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang loud, with Jezrahiah their overseer" (Neh 12:42).

The name thus runs from the eastern land of Shem's son, through the kings who threatened the patriarchs and were judged by the prophets, into the families and offices of the returned community in Jerusalem.