John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 49:34-35

"The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might." — Jeremiah 49:34-35 (ASV)

Some interpreters understand Elam to mean Persia, and this is the most common opinion. I think, however, that the Elamites were not the same as the Persians. I would rather say that they were the Parthians, were it not that Luke, in Acts 2:9, makes them a distinct people from the Parthians.

At the same time, it does not seem right to me to regard the Persians as generally designated by Elam, for the Persians were distant from the Jews, and the Jews never received any injury from that people. There was therefore no reason why the Prophet should denounce punishment on them.

The country of Elymais was known as bordering on the Medes, and contiguous to the Persians. But that people must have joined the Assyrians and Chaldeans against the Jews. Since the Babylonians had them as auxiliaries, it was God’s purpose to avenge the injury done to his people.

Besides, Pliny also speaks of Elamites as being contiguous to the Nabateans; but they were occupying, as it were, a middle position between Persia and Judea. Indeed, as he shows elsewhere, they were a maritime people, for he often speaks of Elymais but names the Elamites only once.

However this may have been, they were eastern peoples, as the Persians were, but not so far from Judea. And as they were, as has been said, near the Medes, it is probable that they allied themselves with the enemies of the Church when Nebuchadnezzar drew with him the vast forces he had gathered everywhere to extend his dominion far and wide. For we shall see in what follows that God was grievously displeased with the Elamites. We therefore conclude that they were very hostile to the chosen people, whose cause God here undertakes.

So much for the name. When, therefore, Jeremiah speaks here of the Elamites, we should understand that a particular nation is referred to—one distinct from the Persians—and also that this nation assisted the Chaldeans in oppressing the Jews. Let us now see what the Prophet declares about them.

He says, first, that this word came to him in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. Nebuchadnezzar, then, greatly harassed the Jews while they still remained in their obstinacy, and it is probable that the Elamites formed a part of the Chaldean army.

Therefore, when the Jews considered how many different enemies they had, and did not expect that these enemies would ever be punished, it was a trial that must have greatly distressed the minds of the godly. What Jeremiah then declared—namely, that the Elamites would not escape unpunished because they so furiously attacked the chosen people under the banner of King Nebuchadnezzar—was something no one would have expected.

This, then, was the reason why the Prophet specified the time: this word, then, came in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah.

Then God, in the first place, declares that he would break the bow of Elam. We know that the Parthians and other eastern peoples were very skillful archers, for every nation possesses its own particular excellence in warfare. Some excel in the use of one kind of weapon, and others in another.

Formerly, light infantry were highly esteemed among the Italians; the Gauls excelled in mailed horsemen. Though now all things are changed, yet every nation still differs in its particular skill in warfare. Historians testify that eastern peoples were very skillful in the use of the bow and arrow.

It is, then, no wonder that the Prophet speaks of the bow of this people and calls it the chief part of their strength, as they excelled in this type of fighting.

The Parthians were indeed much dreaded by the Romans. They would pretend to flee, and then they would turn back and make a fierce attack on their enemies. They also had arrows dipped in poison. By these means, they conquered large armies.

For the Romans laid aside their darts and fought hand to hand, engaging in a stationary battle, so to speak. But when the Parthians kept discharging their arrows, the Romans almost always fought unsuccessfully against them. I refer to this so that we may understand that the bow was not without reason called the chief of their might, for it was by the bow that they were superior to other nations, even though they could not fight hand to hand or with drawn swords.