Jeremiah 49:33-35

New English Translation

³³“Hazor will become a permanent wasteland,
a place where only jackals live.^[a]
No one will live there.
No human being will settle in it.”^[b]

³⁴This was^[c] the Lord’s message to the prophet Jeremiah about Elam,^[d] which came early in the reign^[e] of King Zedekiah of Judah.

³⁵The Lord of Heaven’s Armies said:

“I will kill all the archers of Elam,
who are the chief source of her military might.^[f]

Jeremiah 49:33 sn Cf. Jer 9:11.
Jeremiah 49:33 sn Cf. Jer 49:18 and 50:40, where the same thing is said about Edom and Babylon.
Jeremiah 49:34 tn Heb “that which was.”
Jeremiah 49:34 sn Elam was a country on the eastern side of the Tigris River in what is now southwestern Iran. Its capital city was Susa. It was destroyed in 640 b.c. by Ashurbanipal after a long period of conflict with the Assyrian kings. Babylonian records suggest that Elam regained its independence shortly thereafter, perhaps as early as 625 b.c., and it was involved in the fall of Assyria in 612 b.c. If the date refers to the first year of Zedekiah’s rule (597 b.c.), this prophecy appears to be later than the previous ones (cf. the study notes on 46:2 and 47:1).
Jeremiah 49:34 tn Or “In the beginning of the reign.” For a discussion of the usage of the terms here see the translator’s note on 28:1. If this refers to the accession year, the dating would be 598/97 b.c.
Jeremiah 49:35 tn Heb “I will break the bow of Elam, the chief source of their might.” The phrase does not mean that God will break literal bows or that he will destroy their weapons (synecdoche of species for genus) or their military power (so Hos 1:5). Because of the parallelism, the “bow” here stands for the archers who wielded the bow and were the strongest force (or chief contingent) in their military.

New English Translation (NET)