LACHISH. - An important city of southern Palestine, which at various periods served as a strategic location and stronghold. Sacred Scripture reports that L., inhabited by the Canaanites and ruled by a king, was captured by Joshua (Josh. 10:3, 31ff.; 12:11; cf. 15:21). Rehoboam, son of Solomon, fortified it along with other cities of Judah around 920 BC (2 Chron. 11:9). Lachish witnessed the death of King Amaziah (839 BC) at the hands of his assassins (2 Kings 14:19; 2 Chron. 25:27). In the time of Isaiah, under Hezekiah, in 702 BC, the Assyrian king Sennacherib besieged it (2 Kings 14:19; 2 Chron. 32:9; cf. Mic. 1:13) and from there sent messengers to Jerusalem to demand its surrender (2 Kings 18:17; 19:18; Isa. 36:2; 37:8). A century later, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Lachish (Jer. 34:7) and captured it in 589–588 BC. After the Babylonian exile, Lachish was again inhabited by Jews (Neh. 11:30).
The name of the city, written La-hi-ša, appears several times in the letters (1410–1360 BC) of el-‘Amārah, which reveal the collusion of L. and its princes with the invaders called Ḥabiru (v. [cf. J. Knudtzon, *Die El-Amarna-Tafeln*, Leipzig 1907–15, nos. 287ff., 328ff., 331, 335]). A vivid depiction of the city besieged by the Assyrians is provided by contemporary reliefs found on the gates of Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh (H. Gressmann, *Altorientalische Bilder*, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1927, nos. 137–41; cf. also DB, IV, cols. 15, 23–26).
These biblical and extra-biblical accounts naturally arouse the desire to know the exact location of L. and to derive archaeological information from II. After an initial attempt to identify L. with Tell el-Ḥesī, it is now generally accepted that L. corresponds to Tell ed-Duweir, near el-Qubeibeh, 25 km west of Hebron, in the hills between the Philistine plain and the mountains of Judah. Tell ed-Duweir is one of the most significant ruin mounds in Palestine and perfectly matches the importance that L. held in history.
Between 1932 and 1938, excavations were conducted under the excellent direction of J. L. Starkey. These excavations revealed that the city’s origins date back to the 3rd millennium BC. The first inhabitants settled in the natural caves on the western slope of the tell. When the population later moved to the site of the present tell, they continued for centuries to bury their dead in those caves; the numerous tombs yielded abundant archaeological material. During the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1600 BC), the city received its first defensive walls. In the Late Bronze Age (1600–1200 BC), it enjoyed great prosperity, extending its suburbs into the ancient defensive ditch, which had already partially silted up. Notably, during this period, a temple was built in this ditch rather than within the city itself. This "ditch temple," as the excavators called it, provided valuable contributions to the understanding of this archaeological period, including, among other finds, a bowl with a proto-Sinaitic inscription.
The flourishing of this Canaanite era came to an end with the burning of the city in the 13th century BC; this may be related to the Israelite invasion (cf. Josh. 10:3, 31ff.). During the monarchy, the Israelites fortified the city effectively against any aggression, surrounding it with a double wall and defending the access ramp and the entrance at the southwest corner with a double gate—an outer and an inner gate—along with towers and strong bastions. Clear signs of destruction, however, show that the city could not withstand either the Assyrians or the Babylonians.
It was precisely in a layer of rubble and ashes from this final Judean period (c. 589–588 BC), in a passage of the outer gate, that the most brilliant and unique discovery was made in 1935: 18 ostraca (v.), inscribed with firm and practiced hands in ancient Hebrew script. In 1938, three more ostraca were found. Most of these documents consist of letters addressed to the defender of L., some perfectly legible. They are the first precise personal documents discovered in Palestine. They reflect the social and political life of the time of Jeremiah and the waning kingdom of Judah, mentioning prophets, the king, a royal minister, Jerusalem, a journey to Egypt, etc. They reveal the spoken language of Judea at the time: the same classical Hebrew found in the Law and the Prophets. The ostraca also illustrate how the biblical text was written at that time.
(from H. Torczyner, *Lachish I*, London 1939, p. 70) Lachish - Fragments of the fourth letter from L. - London, British Museum.
(from O. Tufnell - C. H. Inge - L. Harding, *Lachish II*, London 1910, pl. 1)
They are thus of paleographic, philological, historical, and biblical significance. - Vedi tav. XLIX.