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LACHISH

(Heb. lāḵîš)

Assyrian soldiers carrying booty and escorting prisoners from the captured city of Lachish. Detail of relief from southwest palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh (704-681 b.c.e.); British Museum (Erich Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y.)

An ancient Canaanite and biblical city located on the Naḥal Lachish/Wadi Ghafr 24 km. (15 mi.) W of Hebron. Tel Lachish/Tell ed-Duweir (1357.1083), identified as ancient Lachish, is a large mound of some 12.5 ha. (31 a.) overlooking a road from the coastal plain into the Hebron hills.

Old Testament

Lachish as Canaanite and Judahite city appears 22 times in the Bible. In antiquity Lachish was in the vicinity of Libnah, Gezer, and Eglon (Josh. 10:31, 34). Its Canaanite king Japhia entered into a military alliance with the kings of four other cities — Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem, Hoham of Hebron, Piram of Jarmuth, and Debir of Eglon (Josh. 10:3, 5) — against the Joshua-led forces of Israel. In an attempt to force the inhabitants into that military alliance, the combined forces lay siege to the town of Gibeon. Joshua routed the sieging army in response to the covenant with Gibeon. The five kings (including Japhia) escaped, but were later captured in a cave at Makkedah, and subsequently executed (Josh. 10:22-27). The two-day siege of Lachish, one of the “fortified” towns of the coalition (Josh. 10:20), by Israelite forces is specifically mentioned (v. 32). Gezer sent soldiers to relieve Lachish, but to no avail, as Joshua went on to take several sites in the south of Canaan (Josh. 10:33-39; 12:11). Lachish appears again in the list of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah (Josh. 15:39).

2 Chr. 11:9 includes Lachish in the list of cities fortified by Rehoboam of Judah, the site to which King Amaziah later fled, presumably because of its strong defenses, and was assassinated (2 Kgs. 14:19 = 2 Chr. 25:27). The Assyrian army sieged Lachish in the reign of Hezekiah (2 Kgs. 18:14, 17 = 2 Chr. 32:9; cf. 2 Kgs. 19:8), eventually taking and destroying it (Isa. 36:2; 37:8; cf. Mic. 1:13). Lachish’s impending destruction in the reign of Zedekiah was reported by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 34:7). Finally, Lachish was listed as a village reoccupied in postexilic times (Neh. 11:30).

Other Sources

Lachish is named in extrabiblical sources as early as the 15th-century b.c.e. Papyrus Hermitage 1116A, which names it among the Canaanite cities in which Egyptian emissaries resided; Lachish likewise appears in the Amarna Letters, as well as in a letter of the same period found at Tell el-µesi. Nebuchadnezzar commemorated the conquest of Lachish, naming and depicting the town on a stone relief. Eusebius refers to Lachish as located 11 km. (7 mi.) from Eleutheropolis (Beth Guvrin).

Tel Lachish/Tell ed-Duweir

Excavation of Tel Lachish/Tell ed-Duweir began in 1932-38 by John L. Starkey and was followed by Yohanan Aharoni (1966, 1968) and David Ussishkin (1972-1992). Human occupation at the site probably began as early as the Neolithic period and continued in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages; however, evidence about these settlements is sparse, though it appears likely that the entire mound had been occupied during Early Bronze II. From the EB IV period a cemetery of 120 rock-cut tombs and a small village were excavated on a low hill west of the main mound.

Lachish became an important city-state in Middle Bronze II and was fortified in depth; though no trace of the perimeter wall has been unearthed, its existence is attested by the presence of a plastered ramp or glacis and a deep ditch or fosse at the base of the mound. A well-built “palace” in the center of the site, as well as richly appointed rock-cut tombs outside the city attest to the prominence of Lachish in the region. The final level of the MB settlement was destroyed in a fire.

Not until Late Bronze II, designated Level VII, did Lachish regain the prominence as a city-state it had enjoyed in MB II. Strong ties with Egypt attest to this prominence. However, like most LB Canaanite towns, Lachish was apparently nonfortified; indeed, the fosse belonging to the MB defense was now the site of a temple which had at least three major phases of use.

Level VI, the final LB town on the tell, was built along different architectural lines, though it showed clear cultural affinities with Level VII. A large public building took the place of Level VII domestic units, and a temple was built on the summit of the mound in place of the Level VII fosse temple. Along with a group of artifacts of Egyptian origin (a cartouche of Rameses III on a bronze object and fragments of bowls with hieratic script recording taxes paid to an Egyptian religious institution), the plan of this new temple, which imitates Egyptian temples at Amarna and Deir el-Medeineh, suggests strong ties with the government of Rameses III.

Level VI LB Lachish was completely destroyed and subsequently abandoned until the 10th century. Though the destruction of this last Canaanite town would appear to fit the description of the conquest of Lachish in Josh. 10:20, the identity of the conqueror cannot be easily resolved, because of problems in correspondence of the date of the fall of Lachish with the time of Joshua. It is equally likely that Lachish Level VI met its end at the hands of the Sea Peoples. In either case, the fall of Lachish exposes Egypt’s loss of control of Canaan.

The earliest Israelite settlement on Tel Lachish/Tell ed-Duweir is Level V, a nonfortified town usually assigned to the period of the United Monarchy. Besides small domestic buildings at various points on the tell, Aharoni uncovered a building dedicated to cultic activity in the vicinity of the so-called solar shrine of Level I. Recovered from this cult room were ceramic incense stands, chalices, and a stone altar. The destruction of Level V may have been by the Egyptian Sheshonq ca. 925.

Level IV Lachish, a large royal town, was heavily fortified, probably in response to changed military and political conditions. 2 Chr. 11:9 attributes the fortification of Lachish to Rehoboam, though archaeological evidence suggests a slightly later date for the founding of Level IV (Ussishkin suggests either Asa or Jehoshaphat). The massive fortification was formed with a six-chamber gateway, an outer gate which projected beyond the city wall at the crest of the tell, a second line of defense partway down the slope of the tell, and a glacis that extended between the two city walls; the new town now included a residency for the Judahite governor, a large palace-fort built atop a raised platform or podium, other government buildings, and a deep well. Few domestic structures have been uncovered within the walls of the Level IV fortress.

Parts of the Level IV town were destroyed, possibly by an earthquake, requiring major reconstruction of the city gate, part of the palace-fort (designated Palace B by the excavators, here enlarged also in Level III), a “residency” and the “enclosure wall,” though not the city perimeter wall itself. This rebuilt fortress also increased in population, as shown by the additional number of domestic structures. In spite of its deep defensive system, however, an Assyrian army attacked and destroyed Lachish in 701. The siege of the town involved the construction of a massive ramp of boulders and soil which reached from the valley floor to the top of the southwest corner of the town wall, in order to permit siege weapons to breach defenses. The defenders responded with a “counter ramp” inside the perimeter wall to raise the level of defense higher than the siege. A second siege ramp atop the first sealed the fate of the defenders, who were killed or deported. Both siege ramp and “counter ramp” have been identified by the excavations of Ussishkin. The Assyrian battle for Lachish was later commemorated in relief on stone panels in the Assyrian palace in Nineveh.

Lachish was rebuilt (Level II) as a fortified town in the 7th century, probably during the reign of Josiah. This town was smaller and less well defended than the Level III city. It too suffered total destruction, in 587/586, by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Correspondence by military personnel was found in the ruins of Level II; these “Lachish Letters” were probably sent to the commander of Lachish by a subordinate whose nearby location required regular reports.

Following a period of abandonment Lachish again saw occupation at the beginning of the Persian period as an administrative center. Construction on the mound included restoration of the fortifications, a small residency or palace, and a temple (called the solar shrine because of its entrance facing the rising sun). Level I lasted into the Hellenistic period, by which time the residency had been given over to “squatters.” The temple, however, continued in use. The discovery of a cache of some 200 small limestone incense altars, though found outside the mound, probably relates to rituals practiced in the solar shrine. In the Hellenistic period Lachish was finally abandoned as a town or village site.

Bibliography. Y. Aharoni, Investigations at Lachish: The Sanctuary and the Residency (Lachish V) (Tel Aviv, 1975); H. Torczyner et al., Lachish I: The Lachish Letters (London, 1938); O. Tufnell et al., Lachish II: The Fosse Temple (London, 1940); Lachish III: The Iron Age (London, 1953); Lachish IV: The Bronze Age (London, 1958); D. Ussishkin, The Conquest of Lachish by Sennacherib (Tel Aviv, 1982); “Excavations at Tel Lachish — 1973-1977: Preliminary Report,” Tel Aviv 5 (1978): 1-97; “Levels VII and VI at Tel Lachish and the End of the Bronze Age in Canaan,” in Palestine in the Bronze and Iron Ages, ed. J. N. Tubb (London, 1985), 213-30.

Paul F. Jacobs

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LACHISH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)