And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai. The LXX. presents several slight differences, "And I saw in the vision of my dream, when I was in the city Susa, which is in the province Elymais, and I seemed in my vision to be at the gate Ailam."
Theodotion renders more briefly, "And I was in Susa the palace ( σούσοις τῇ βάρει), in the province Ailam, and I was on the Ubal." The Syriac is in close agreement with the Massoretic. even to the transcription of the doubtful word Ubal.
The transcription is carried so far that medeenatha, "a city," is used to translate medeena, "a province." Jerome renders m deena, cicitas, and uval, portam, and beera, castrum. The word אוּבַל ('oobal) is nearly a hapax legomenon, absolutely so if we do not admit joobal, in Jeremiah 17:8, to be the same word.
There is, as will have been seen above, great differences among the versions. The LXX. and Jerome seem to have read אולם (oolam), "porch" or "gate," instead of oobal. Ewald would make the word mean "river-basin," Stromgebeit—a view supported also by Zöckler.
In many respects "marsh" might be a more suitable rendering. To the south-west of the present ruins of Susa there is an extensive marsh, which may have been of old date. The preposition liphnee, which occurs in Jeremiah 17:3, is all but meaningless applied to a river, if we use it in its ordinary meaning, "before."
If we take it as meaning "eastward," the ram would be "westward" from Shushan, ie. between Shushan and the river; but as Daniel was in Shushan, he would naturally state the position of the "ram" in relation to it rather than to the river.
The preposition עַל (‛al) is nearly as meaningless with regard to a river, unless a bridge or a boat is intended. We are inclined to read oolam as "porch." At the same time, we know that there was the river Ulai (Eulaeus) near Shushan.
It is mentioned in one of the inscriptions of Asshurbanipal in connection with Shushan. The palace. Beera really seems to mean "fortress." It occurs ten times in Esther, and always as the appellation of Shushan.
In Nehemiah it is once used with this connotation, but twice in regard to some building in Jerusalem, probably the temple; in Chronicles it is used for the temple. In Ezra 6:2 it is used of Achmetha, equivalent to Ecbatana.
From the fact that the LXX. translates πόλις, it might be reasoned that the translator had עיר before him, but the translation probably was due to ignorance of the precise meaning of the word. In Esther this word is rendered πόλις.
In Nehemiah it is once rendered πόλις, once it is rendered ἄβιρα, and once βίρα. The derivation of the word seems to be from the Assyrian birtu. It really means "citadel" or "fortress," and thus may be compared with the Carthaginian byrsa.
Jerome's translation, castrum, suits this. It is not necessary to maintain that at this time Daniel was in Shushan. All that is implied is that in his dream he was there. Shushan is first referred to in the inscriptions of Asshur-bani-pal as the capital of Elam.
In the history of that monarch there is an inscription of his given in which he says, "Shushan, the great city, the seat of their gods, the place of their oracle, I captured." Then follows a description of the plunder he took from it.
We do not know when it recovered from that overthrow. The name is said to be derived from the number of lilies growing in the neighbourhood; but shushan, "a lily," is a Shemitie word, and the Elamites are usually regarded as an Aryan people.
The association of Babylon with Elam and Media must have been intimate, if any credit is to be placed on the Greek accounts of the marriage of Nebuchadnezzar. Hence, even if Elam was not, at the date specified, a province of the Babylonian Empire, perhaps never was, yet the Babylonian.
court might well have envoys visiting the court of Elam. We find from the well-known inscription of Nabunahid, that he regarded Cyrus at first as a friend and deliverer from the formidable Astyages, King of Umman-Manda.
Daniel may have been sent to Elam, although there is no necessity for maintaining that this was the case. It was not until he had conquered Astyages that Cyrus held possession of Shushan.