ProlepsisOpen in the graph →

Prophecy

The bow of Elam broken, its people scattered (Jeremiah 49:34-39)

Frieze of Archers from the palace of Darius I at Susa (around 510 BC, Louvre): Susa, the former capital of Elam, became a Persian capital.
Archaeological object Frieze of Archers from the palace of Darius I at Susa (around 510 BC, Louvre): Susa, the former capital of Elam, became a Persian capital. — Vania Teofilo, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

◐ Written shortly before or at the time: it cannot be decided

Written 597 BC according to tradition; c. 597–500 BC according to historians. Event: 596–522 BC.

See the full entry: sources, objections, answers

In short

The announcement. The prophet Jeremiah, around 597 BC, announces that the bow of Elam, a kingdom east of Babylon, will be broken, that its king will be destroyed and that its people will be scattered among all the nations.

What happened. In 596/595 BC, faced with the Babylonian army, the king of Elam takes fright and goes home without fighting. The kingdom disappears in the 6th century BC and becomes a Persian province. From 522 BC, its former capital, Susa, serves as the administrative capital of the Persian king Darius I.

What is still debated. the decisive ruin of Elam, the work of the Assyrians around 640 BC, comes before Jeremiah's announcement, and no later event matches the text precisely.

What would be striking if the text came first

Some read “my throne in Elam” as the Persian palace of Susa; that is a reading. This entry is striking above all for its limits: most of Elam’s ruin comes before the oracle, and no later event fits the text precisely.

Main objection (in French for now)

La ruine décisive d’Élam est l’œuvre d’Assurbanipal, qui saccage Suse et déporte ses notables (Britannica la date de 640) : elle précède l’oracle de Jérémie. Esd 4:9 mentionne d’ailleurs des Élamites établis en Samarie, mais par les Assyriens.

The text (World English Bible)

The LORD’s word that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, “The LORD of Armies says: ‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. I will bring on Elam the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds. There will be no nation where the outcasts of Elam will not come. I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their life. I will bring evil on them, even my fierce anger,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them. I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from there king and…

Jer 49:34-38

Sources