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, Ge 10:22; according to Josephus ; 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 ; though as near unto Persia, and bordering on Media; according to Stephanus , the Elymaites were a country that belonged to the Assyrians; and so Strabo places the Elymaeans in Aturia or Assyria; and it seems very manifest that Elam served under Sennacherib, king of Assyria, when he besieged Jerusalem, Isa 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, Da 8:2; now this prophecy against Elam was delivered outin 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: Antiqu.
l. 1. c. 6. sect. 4. Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 25, 26, 27. De urbibus apud Cocceium in loc. Geograph. l. 16.