Elam

The lists of those who returned from the Babylonian exile with Zerubbabel record, “The children of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four” (Ezra 2:31; Nehemiah 7:34). The word “other” sets this Elam apart from the Elam named earlier in the same lists, whose descendants also numbered 1,254 (Ezra 2:7; Nehemiah 7:12). It stands among a run of towns such as Bethlehem, Anathoth, Nebo, Lod and Jericho (Ezra 2:21–35), so it may be a town rather than the ancestor of a family; the text does not say.