5. (Sept. 'HXc'i, Josephns"HXrtroc-, Vulg. Ela.) The son and successor of Baasha, king of Israel (1 Kings xvi, 8-10) ; his reign lasted for little more than a year (comp. ver. 8 with 10), B.C. 928-7. He was killed while drunk by Zimri, in the house of his steward Ar- za, who was proliably a confederate in the plot. This occurred, according to Josephus (Ant. viii, 12, 4), while his army and officers were absent at the siege of Gib- bethon. He was the last king of Baisha's line, and by this catastrophe the predictions of tlie prophet Jehu were accomplished (1 Kings xvi, 0, 7, 11-14).
6. (Sept. 'HX«.) The father of Hoshea, last king of Israel (2 Kings xv, 30 ; xvii, 1), B.C. 729, or ante.
7. (Sept. 'HXa V. r. 'HXw, Vulg. Ela.) The son of Uzzi, and one of the Benjamite heads of families who were taken into captivity (1 Chron. ix, 8), or rather, perhaps, returned from it. B.C. 536.
Elah. See Oak ; Terebinth.
Elai's ('E\aic), a Phoenician city mentioned by Dionysius {Perieg.'QlO) and other ancient authors as
ELAM
112
WLMl
tying between Joppa and Gaza, but apparently mere- ly an appellutive (see KelanJ, Palaest. p. 747) for some place noted for olives (tXoirt), which abound in that entire region.
E'lam (Heb. Eylam\ S?"^?, corresponding to the Pehlvi Airjama [see Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 1016]), the name of a man and of the region settled by his pos- terity, also of several Hebrews, especially about the time of the Babylonian captivity.
1. (Sejit. 'EKafx; Josephus "EXa/ioc, -'^nt. i, 6, 4; Vulg. ^Elam.) Originally, like Aram, the name of a man — the son of Shem (Gen. x, 22; 1 Chron. i, 17). B.C. post 2514. Commonly, however, it is used as the appellation of a country (Gen. xiv, 1, 9; Isa. xi, 11; •xxi, 2 ; Jer. xxv, 25 ; xlix, 34-39 ; Ezek. xxxii, 24 ; Dan. viii, 2). In Gen. xiv, 1, it is introduced along •with the kingdom of Shinar in Babylon, and in Isa. xxi, 2, and Jer. xxv, 25, it is connected with Media. In Ezra iv, 9, the Elamites are described among the nations of the Persian empire ; and in Dan. viii, 2, Susa is said to lie on the river Ulai (Eulceus or Cho- aspes), in the province of Elam. This river was the modern Karun (Layard, Nineveh and Bab. p. 146), and the capital of Elam was Shushan (q. v.), one of the most powerful and magnificent cities of the prime- val world. The name Elam occurs in the cuneiform inscriptions (q. v.) found on the bulls in Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh. The country was also called Nu- vaki, as we learn from the monuments of Khorsabad and Besutun (Layard, Nin. and Bab. p. 452).
The Elam of Scripture appears to be the province lying south of Assyria and east of Persia Proper, to which Herodotus gives the name of Cissia (iii, 91 ; v, 49, etc.), and which is in part termed Susis or Susiana by the geo .;raphers (Strab. xv, 3, § 12 ; Ptolem. vi, 3, etc.). It includes a portion of the mountainous coun- try separating between the Mosopotamian plain and the high tal de-land of Iran, together with a fertile and valualjle low tract at the foot of the range, be- tween it and the Tigris. The passage of Daniel (viii, 2) which places Shushan (Susa) in " the province of Elam,"' may be regarded as decisive of this identifica- tion, which is further confirmed by the frequent men- tion of Elvmajans in this district (Strain xi, 13, § 6 ; xvi, 1, § 17; Ptolem. vi, 3; Plin. //. N. vi, 26, etc.), as well as by the combinations in which Elam is found in Scripture (see Gen. xiv, 1 ; Isa. xxi, 2 ; Ezek. xxxii, 24). It appears from Gen. x, 22, that this countrj- was originally peopled b)' descendants of Shem, close- ly allied to the Aramaeans (Syrians) and the Assjr- ians ; and from Gen. xiv, 1-12, it is evident that by the time of Abraham a very important power had been built up in the same region. Not only is "Che- dor-laomer, king of Elam," at the head of a settled government, and able to make war at a distance of two thousand miles from his own country, but he man- ifestly exercises a supremacj' over a number of other kings, among whom we even find Amraphel, king of Shinar, or Babjdonia. It is plain, tlien, that at this early time tlie predominant power in Lower Mesopo- tamia was Elam, which for a while held the place pos- sessed earlier by Babylon (Gen. x, 10), and later by either Babylon or Assyria. Discoveries made in the country itself confirm tUi« view. They exhil)it to us Su'ia, the Elamitic capital, as one of the most ancient cities of the East, and show that its monarchs main- tained, throughout almost the whole period of Baby- lonian and Assyrian greatness, a cinasi-independent position. Traces are even thought to have been found of Clu'dor-laonier himself, whom some are inclined to identify with an early Babylonian monarch, who is called the " Ravager of the West," and whose name rp.ads as Kudur-mapula. The Elamitic empire estab- lished at this time was, however, but of short dura- tion. Babylon and Assyria proved, on the whole, stronger powers, and Elam during the period of their