Oracle against Elam: Elam’s appearance here is a bit surprising since we do not know that it had any direct involvement with Israelite affairs during this time. Elam is the most distant of all the nations targeted by the oracles. It was located to the east of Babylon in the Zagros Mountains, south of the Medes and north of Persia. Its capital was Susa.

Elam was an ancient Iranian power, but by the seventh century B.C. was a shadow of its previous self. In the early part of that century it found itself frequently in alliance with Babylon and in conflict with Assyria, and in 640 B.C. the Assyrian king Asshurbanipal successfully sacked the capital. Even so, the Elamites were able to reassert some form of their kingdom and they survived until Cyrus the Persian absorbed Susa and its surrounding …