Kejadian 10:22

10:22 The sons of Shem were Elam, ¹  Asshur, ²  Arphaxad, ³  Lud, ⁴  and Aram. ⁵ 

Yeremia 25:25

25:25 all the kings of Zimri; ⁶  all the kings of Elam; ⁷  all the kings of Media; ⁸ 

Daniel 8:2

8:2 In this ⁹  vision I saw myself in Susa ¹⁰  the citadel, ¹¹  which is located in the province of Elam. In the vision I saw myself at the Ulai Canal. ¹² 

[10:22]  ¹ sn The Hebrew name Elam (עֵילָם, ’elam) means “highland.” The Elamites were a non-Semitic people who lived east of Babylon.

[10:22]  ² sn Asshur is the name for the Assyrians. Asshur was the region in which Nimrod expanded his power (see v. 11, where the name is also mentioned). When names appear in both sections of a genealogical list, it probably means that there were both Hamites and Shemites living in that region in antiquity, especially if the name is a place name.

[10:22]  ³ sn The descendants of Arphaxad may have lived northeast of Nineveh.

[10:22]  ⁴ sn Lud may have been the ancestor of the Ludbu, who lived near the Tigris River.

[10:22]  ⁵ sn Aram became the collective name of the northern tribes living in the steppes of Mesopotamia and speaking Aramaic dialects.

[25:25]  ⁶ sn The kingdom of Zimri is mentioned nowhere else, so its location is unknown.

[25:25]  ⁷ sn See further Jer 49:34-39 for judgment against Elam.

[25:25]  ⁸ sn Elam and Media were east of Babylon; Elam in the south and Media in the north. They were in what is now western Iran.

[8:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “the.”

[8:2]  ¹⁰ sn Susa (Heb. שׁוּשַׁן, shushan), located some 230 miles (380 km) east of Babylon, was a winter residence for Persian kings during the Achaemenid period. The language of v. 2 seems to suggest that Daniel may not have been physically present at Susa, but only saw himself there in the vision. However, the Hebrew is difficult, and some have concluded that the first four words of v. 2 in the MT are a later addition (cf. Theodotion).

[8:2]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew word בִּירָה (birah, “castle, palace”) usually refers to a fortified structure within a city, but here it is in apposition to the city name Susa and therefore has a broader reference to the entire city (against this view, however, see BDB 108 s.v. 2). Cf. NAB “the fortress of Susa”; TEV “the walled city of Susa.”

[8:2]  ¹² tn The term אוּבַל (’uval = “stream, river”) is a relatively rare word in biblical Hebrew, found only here and in vv. 3 and 6. The Ulai was apparently a sizable artificial canal in Susa (cf. NASB, NIV, NCV), and not a river in the ordinary sense of that word.