Biblical Elam

Elam (; ‘Êlam) in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 10:22, Ezra 4:9;) is said to be one of the sons of Shem, the son of Noah. It 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. This implies that the Elamites were considered Semites by the Hebrews, although their language was not Semitic, but is considered a linguistic isolate. This modern categorization does not conflict with the Hebrew Bible, since it holds that the diversity of human languages originated at the tower of Babel.