“Elam is there.
All its hordes are
Around its grave.
All of them
Were killed,
Fallen by the sword.
They went down,
Uncircumcised,
Into the world below.
They had spread
Terror
In the land
Of the living.
They bear their shame
With those who go down
To the pit.
They have made Elam
A bed
Among the slain
With all its hordes of people.
Their graves are
All around it.
All of them
Are uncircumcised.
They were killed
By the sword.
Terror of them
Was spread
In the land
Of the living.
They bear their shame
With those who go down
To the pit.
They are placed
Among the slain.”
Elam was the grandson of Noah or a people in present day southern Iran or Persia. Thus, Elam, with its inhabitants around its grave, was there in the pit, the shadowy afterlife. They had all been killed by the sword. They went down into the pit uncircumcised. While they were living, they had spread terror. Thus, they bear the same shame of the others who have gone down into the pit. They were in a bed with graves all around them, filled with uncircumcised people who were killed by the sword. The worst place in the pit was with these uncircumcised people who had died by the sword.