Nadene Goldfoot
Babylonian and Persian EmpiresElam (;[1] עֵילָם ‘Elam) in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 10:22, Ezra 4:9) is said to be one of the sons of Shem, the son of Noah. The name is also used (as in Akkadian) for the ancient country of Elam in what is now southern Iran, whose people the Hebrews believed to be the offspring of Elam, son of Shem (Genesis 10:22). This implies that the Elamites were considered Semites by the Hebrews. Their language was not one of the Semitic languages, but is considered a linguistic isolate.
Elam was an ancient state east of Babylonia (the modern Khuzistan)l. It's capital was Susa, the same Shushan of the Book of Esther. A king of Elam living a little before Abraham was Eparti II, king of Anshan, Susa, Sukkalmah and reigned in 1973 BCE. He was married to the daughter of the king of Isin in this same year who was king of Idden-Dagan.
Elam (the nation) is also mentioned in Genesis 14, describing an ancient war in the time of Abraham, involving Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam at that time. This king and 3 confederates attacked the kings of S Canaan in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea and was in turn defeated by Abraham! (Gen 14). (The name Chedorlaomer is associated with familiar Elamite components, such as kudur, meaning "servant", and Lagamar, who was a high goddess in the Elamite pantheon. The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia stated that, apart from the fact that Chedorlaomer can be identified as a proper Elamite compound, all else is matter of controversy and "the records give only the rather negative result that from Babylonian and Elamite documents nothing definite has been learned of Chedorlaomer.")
After warring against the cities of the Plain at the Battle of Siddim, King Chedorlaomer went to Sodom and Gomorrah to collect bounty. At Sodom, amongst the spoils of war, he took Lot and his entire household captive. When Lot's uncle, Abram received news of what happened, he assembled a battle unit of three hundred and eighteen men who pursued the Elamite forces north of Damascus to Hobah. Abram and one of his divisions defeated Chedorlaomer.(Genesis 14:11–17) While the King James Version , verse 17 is translated the Hebrew word in question is "וַיַּכֵּם" in verse 17 as slaughtered (Genesis 14:17), Young's Literal Translation uses the term smiting (Genesis 14:17)
Elamites much later participated in Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem in 704 BCE.(Is.22:6). Ashurbanipal transferred part of the population of Elamites to Samaria after 639 BCE (Ezra 4:9-10).
Jews may have lived in Elam from the period of the Babylonian Exile (597 BCE-538 BCE) (Isaiah 11:11) Under Persian rule, their number were considerable; they were still of importance several centuries later and remained significant in and after the Geonic Period.
The prophecies of the Book of Isaiah (11:11, 21:2, 22:6) and the Book of Jeremiah (25:25) also mention Elam. The last part of Jeremiah 49 is an apocalyptic oracle against Elam which states that Elam will be scattered to the four winds of the earth, but "will be, in the end of days, that I will return their captivity," a prophecy self-dated to the first year of Zedekiah (597 BC).
The Book of Jubilees may reflect ancient tradition when it mentions a son (or daughter, in some versions) of 'Elam named "Susan", whose daughter Rasuaya married Arpachshad, progenitor of another branch of Shemites. Shushan (or Susa) was the ancient capital of the Elamite Empire. (Dan. 8:2) This is where Queen Esther lived which was the capital of Persia. (The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis, is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters, considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Beta Israel, where it is known as the Book of Division).
Elam is mentioned in the book, Ur of the Chaldees by Woolley, p. 166, in that the archaeologists found in their excavation of Ur that a chamber had been broken open and looted by the Elamites.
It is in Ur that the Ziggurat, a huge structure, was found. The Ziggurat is a peculiar feature of Mesopotamian architecture, also found in ancient Elam. Archaeologists are not sure if the ziggurats of the Ur III period were of a new religious concept or buildings found raised by the Ur-Nammu in some of his cities were just the final stage of a long architectural development, which they think is more likely.
On page 129 is mentioned that the 3rd Dynasty of Ur happened in 2112-2004 BCE. To my calculations, Abraham lived in the 2nd millennium BCE, to be specific, about 1948 BCE.
Christian and Jewish time tables are not quite the same as Jews have used the moon and others use the sun for times. I'm looking for cause to make Abraham's father, Terah and all the others pick up and leave Ur from which they had lived. It is said in the Torah that they had come to Canaan from the East, and that Ur of the Chaldees is where they had lived. Could it have been an invasion of the Elamites who came from today's Iran? Could they have come causing life to be unbearable, and that's when they left, possibly escaping a life of slavery to the Elamites?
The Elamites forces had broken into Ur and sacked the temples. They destroyed the offerings of ancient kings that were stored there. The temples were rebuilt, but with the broken stone ex votos nothing could be done, so the fragments were collected, and because they were holy and so could not be treated as mere rubbish, buried under the new pavements of the shrines to which they had belonged. That's how they were found by the archaeologists.
Items were found in Ur that had belonged to Sargon of Akkad in this 3rd Dynasty dig. "Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great, was the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC. He is sometimes identified as the first person in recorded history to rule over an empire."
So this was an invader of Ur previously before Abraham's time. His empire is thought to have included most of Mesopotamia, parts of the Levant, besides incursions into Hurrite and Elamite territory, ruling from his (archaeologically as yet unidentified) capital, Akkad (also Agade).
They found vases dedicated to his son, Rimush which was treasure selected from the king's share of the booty of Elam after the king of all had smitten Elam and Barakhsi. Could this imply it was Sargon? Woolley's men turned up a bowl that was carved with a demon and animals is in a style which might be native to Elam or some other part of SW Iran . They thought that this showed a pious regard for the temples of Ur by kings of the Akkadian dynasty. Manishtushu was Rimush's successor at Ur, and dedicated to the god, Enlil. Enlil, Mesopotamian god of the atmosphere and a member of the triad of gods completed by Anu (Sumerian: An) and Ea (Enki). Enlil meant Lord Wind: both the hurricane and the gentle winds of spring were thought of as the breath issuing from his mouth and eventually as his word or command. 
The last great king of the dynasty was Naram-Sin, and this was discovered by finding similar copies of statue inscriptions and by vessel and mace head fragments bearing his name. Everything bore names that was manufactured.
Sargon also claims in his inscriptions that he is "Sargon, king of the world, conqueror of Elam and Parahshum", the two major polities to the east of Sumer.
He also names various rulers of the east whom he vanquished, such as "Luh-uh-ish-an, son of Hishibrasini, king of Elam", king of Elam" or " Sidga'u, general of Parahshum", who later also appears in an inscription by Rimush.
Sargon triumphed over 34 cities in total. Ships from Meluhha, Magan and Dilmun, rode at anchor in his capital of Akkad.
He entertained a court or standing army of 5,400 men who "ate bread daily before him."
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Elam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargon_of_Akkad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rulers_of_Elam
Ur Of The Chaldees, a revised nd updated edition of Sir Leonard Woolley's Excavations at Ur by PRS Moorey
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia -Elam
