Lachish
City · Lachish → Tell ed-Duweir, Israel
Joshua took this stronghold in the south country, and it grew into Judah’s second city. Sennacherib besieged and broke it, and carved the siege on his palace walls; Babylon burned it again in Judah’s last days.
People
- Joshua
- Amaziah
- Hezekiah
- Sennacherib
- Nebuchadnezzar II
At a glance
- Realm
- Judah
- Role
- Fortress, Judah’s second city
- Peoples
- Canaanites, then Israel (Judah)
- First mention
- Joshua 10 (king of Lachish)
The story
Lachish guarded the lowland approaches to the hills of Judah, a strong double-walled fortress second only to Jerusalem. Joshua took it in the conquest of the south, and Judah’s kings made it a chief city of their defence.
Sennacherib of Assyria besieged and stormed Lachish, and carved the whole assault across a room of his palace at Nineveh, the reliefs that stand today in the British Museum. King Amaziah was hunted down and killed here, and in Judah’s last days Babylon burned Lachish and Azekah, the final fortified cities left, a moment the Lachish letters caught as they watched for the signal fires.
Through the eras
- Conquest & Judges · standing. Joshua took Lachish in the southern campaign.
- Divided Kingdoms · at its height. Judah’s second city, ringed with walls; Sennacherib stormed it in 701 BC and carved the siege on his palace at Nineveh.
- The Exile · in ruins. Burned by Babylon; with Azekah it was among the last of Judah’s cities to fall.
- The Return · rebuilt. Settled again after the exile; Nehemiah names Lachish and its fields.