676
ELASA
ELDER
statues of the kings were carried to Assyria, as well as the images of all the Elamite deities — Sosinak, the god who delivered oracles, and whose image was concealed from the sight of the laity, Sumudu, Lagamar, Part'kira, Araman-Kasinias, Udiiran, Sapak, Ra^ba, Sungursara, Karsa and Kirsamas, Sudanu, Apak-sina, Bilala, Panintimri, Silagara, Napsa, Nabritu, and Kindakaibu (to whom we have to add also Laguda, Nakhkhunte or Nankhundi, and Khumba). The kingdom of Elara perished, and a desolated province was added to the Assyr. empire. But the empire was already on the decline, and in a few years Elam ceased to belong to it. In B.C. 600, the year probably of the destruction of Nineveh, Jeremiah refers to ' the kings of Elam ' (Jer 25"), and eight years later he declares that Elam is about to be consumed by its enemies, its king and princes destroyed, and its people scattered (49"''°). This would, fit in with the conquest of Anzan by Teispes the Persian, the ancestor of Cyrus (which see). When Elam and Media are called upon to besiege Babylon in Is 21', Cyrus, king of Anzan, must be meant, as Anzan was synonymous with Elam among the Babylonians. It would appear from Ac 2* that the old language of Elam was still spoken there in the first century of our era.
LrraRATTTBE. — Billerbcck, Suta (1893); Dieulafoy, L'AcropoU de Suse (IS&O); Sayce, 'The Inscriptions of Mai-Amir,' in the Tramactions of the Leyden Oriental Congress (liSS) ; LofLus, CToWaa oikJ Susiana (18S7). A. H. SaYCE.
ELASi ('AXa<rd), 1 Mac 9».— The site may be at the ruin IVasa, near Bethhoron (SWP iii. sh. 17).
ELASAH (nf'V^N 'God hath made').— 1. One of those who had married a foreign wife (Ezr 10-). 2. The son of Shaphan, who along with Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, carried a message from king Zedekiah to Babylon (Jer 29"). For no apparent reason, RV retains the AV spelling Elasah in both the above passages, althoutjh both AV and RV give for the same Heb. the form Eleasah (wh. see) elsewhere. J. A. Selbie.
ELATH or ELOTH (nVi?, mVi?).— A seaport in the extreme S. of Edom, at the head of the Gulf of Akabah. It is mentioned in Dt 2* in connexion with Ezion-geber, one of tlie ' stations ' of the Israelites. Elath, Eloth, and Elim may possibly be various names of one and the same place, tho ' palm-grove' which was the second halting - place after the passage of the Red Sea. (See Sayce, HCM p. 268). fe. is probably identical with El-paran of Gn H' and Elah of Gn 36". It has also been suggested that it is referred to in 1 Ch 4", where for ' Iru, Elah ' (nSi(, n-y) we might read ' Ir and Elah ' (Ty .-i^Ki). See further Dillmann on Gn 36". The history of E. was a chequered one. Coming into the possession of Israel when Edom was subdued by David (2 S 8"), it was an important naval station during the reign of Solomon (1 E 9-'). When the disiuption of the kingdom took place, Edom con- tin led to be a vassal of the house of David, until it recovered its independence in the time of Tehoram the son of Jehoshaphat (2 K S^). The port of E. passed once more mto the possession of Jndah, when Amaziah and Uzziah had inflicted a succession of defeats upon Edom (2 K 14^). It was wrested permanently from Jndah during the operations undertaken against Aliaz by I'ekah and Rezin (2 K 10"), and either the Syrians {Kethihh) or the Edomites (Kere) became its pos- sessors. With this event (c. B.C. 734) ends its history as far as OT ia concerned. K. is the xaoAeTa'Alabah. J. A. Selbik.
EL-BERITH (Jg 9«).— See Baal-Berith, and
cf. Moore, Judges, 242, 265; W. R. Smith, A9 93 n. ; Baudissin in PRE? iL p. 334.
EL-BETHEL (pirn's ^k)-— The name which Jacob is said to have given to the scene of his ^asion on his way back from Paddan-aram, Gn 35' (P ?). The LXX (Bai9^X), Vulg. (Dormis Dei), Pesh. and Arab. VSS omit ' El,' which Ball (in Haupt's OT) suggests may have been corrupted from k^'^'^ ' that,' which would naturally be attached to D-p-ph (so in Pesh. and Vulg.). Ball justly adds that God of Betliel li an extraordinary name for a place. See, however, the note (*) om p. 278' of the present volume.
J. A. Selbie.
ELDAAH (n^i^^, perhaps 'God hath called'). — A son of Midian (Gn 25^ 1 Ch 1"). See Gene- alogy.
ELDAD (tj^n). — One of the seventy elders appointed to assist Moses in the government of the people. On a memorable occasion in the wilder- ness journey, he and another named Medad were not present with Moses and tlie rest of the elders at the door of the tabernacle to hear God's message and receive His spirit. But the spirit of the Lord came upon them where they were, and they prophesied in the camp. Joshua regarded this as an irre^larity, and appealed to Moses to forbid them. But he received the reply, 'Art thou jealous for my sake? would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit upon them ! ' (Nu 11"''®).
R. M. Boyd.
ELDAD AND MODAD, BOOK OF. — The fact that the prophecies of these men are unrecorded in Nu 1128-2S furnished an invitin" theme for imarina- tion to some unkno\vn seer and author. His book is quoted in Hermas, Vis. ii. 3 : ' Thou shalt say to Maximus. Behold the tribulation cometh . . . " The Lord is near to them that turn to Him," as it is written in the (book) of Eldad and Modad.' The Pal. Targums (Jcrus. i. and Jems. ii. ) both supply us with the subject of E. and M.'s prophecy, filling in, as is their wont, the supposed hiatus m the Heb. Bible. They a^ee with Hermas that it had reference to pre-JIessianic tribulation, which is described under the coming of Magog against Israel at the end of days. Jerus. ii. says that Gog and ftlagog shall both fall by the h.ind of King Messiah. Jerus. i. omits this ; but adds, 'The Lord (see Levy, s.v. O'Tp) is near to them that are in the hour of tribula- tion.' The close resemblance thus pointed out be- tween Hermas and the two Targums seems certainly to indicate tliat all three authors were acquainted with the same Bk of E. and M. ; and renders the hesitancy of Schiirer and Ziickler no longer neces- sary. In 1 Clem, xxiii. 3. 4 and 2 Clem. xi. 2. 3 is a long quotation, called in the one case ypa(j>i], in the other wpo(pr]TiK6s \irfos, but not in OT, which Lightfoot and Holtzmann conjecture to have been taken from our book. In both cases, as well as in Hermas, the quotation is designed to refute one who is sceptical about the approaching tribulations ' at the end of the days.' Our book is found in the Stichometry of Nicephorus (400 ffrlxot), and in the Synopsis Athanasii (see Abraham, Book of).