"Flee, get you far off, dwell in hidden recesses of the land, O inhabitants of Hazor-- It is the utterance of Jehovah-- For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath counselled a counsel and purposed a purpose against you." But then, as if this warning were a mere taunt, he renews his address to the Chaldeans and directs their attack against Hazor:-- "Arise, go up against a nation that is at ease, that dwelleth without fear--it is the utterance of Jehovah-- Which abide alone, without gates or bars"-- like the people of Laish before the Danites came, and like Sparta before the days of Epaminondas. Possibly we are to combine these successive "utterances," and to understand that it was alike Jehovah's will that the Chaldeans should invade and lay waste Hazor, and that the unfortunate inhabitants should escape--but escape plundered and impoverished: for "Their camels shall become a spoil, The multitude of their cattle a prey: I will scatter to every wind them that have the corners of their hair polled;[241] I will bring their calamity upon them from all sides. Hazor shall be a haunt of jackals, a desolation for ever: No one shall dwell there, No soul shall sojourn therein." FOOTNOTES: [240] Magor-missabib: cf. xlvi. 5. [241] _I.e._ cut off. CHAPTER XXIV _ELAM_ xlix. 34-39 "I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might."--JER. xlix. 35. We do not know what principle or absence of principle determined the arrangement of these prophecies; but, in any case, these studies in ancient geography and politics present a series of dramatic contrasts. From two ancient and enduring types of Eastern life, the city of Damascus and the Bedouin of the desert, we pass to a state of an entirely different order, only slightly connected with the international system of Western Asia. Elam contended for the palm of supremacy with Assyria and Babylon in the farther east, as Egypt did to the south-west. Before the time of Abraham Elamite kings ruled over Chaldea, and Genesis xiv. tells us how Chedorlaomer with his subject-allies collected his tribute in Palestine. Many centuries later, the Assyrian king Ashur-bani-pal (B.C. 668-626) conquered Elam, sacked the capital Shushan, and carried away many of the inhabitants into captivity. According to Ezra iv. 9, 10, Elamites were among the mingled population whom "the great and noble Asnapper" (probably Ashur-bani-pal) settled in Samaria.