Lachish

2 definitions found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Lachish
     impregnable, a royal Canaanitish city in the Shephelah, or
     maritime plain of Palestine (Josh. 10:3, 5; 12:11). It was taken
     and destroyed by the Israelites (Josh. 10:31-33). It afterwards
     became, under Rehoboam, one of the strongest fortresses of Judah
     (2 Chr. 10:9). It was assaulted and probably taken by


     Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:14, 17; 19:8; Isa. 36:2). An account of
     this siege is given on some slabs found in the chambers of the
     palace of Koyunjik, and now in the British Museum. The
     inscription has been deciphered as follows:, "Sennacherib, the
     mighty king, king of the country of Assyria, sitting on the
     throne of judgment before the city of Lachish: I gave permission
     for its slaughter." (See {NINEVEH}.)
     
       Lachish has been identified with Tell-el-Hesy, where a
     cuneiform tablet has been found, containing a letter supposed to
     be from Amenophis at Amarna in reply to one of the Amarna
     tablets sent by Zimrida from Lachish. This letter is from the
     chief of Atim (=Etam, 1 Chr. 4:32) to the chief of Lachish, in
     which the writer expresses great alarm at the approach of
     marauders from the Hebron hills. "They have entered the land,"
     he says, "to lay waste...strong is he who has come down. He lays
     waste." This letter shows that "the communication by tablets in
     cuneiform script was not only usual in writing to Egypt, but in
     the internal correspondence of the country. The letter, though
     not so important in some ways as the Moabite stone and the
     Siloam text, is one of the most valuable discoveries ever made
     in Palestine" (Conder's Tell Amarna Tablets, p. 134).
     
       Excavations at Lachish are still going on, and among other
     discoveries is that of an iron blast-furnace, with slag and
     ashes, which is supposed to have existed B.C. 1500. If the
     theories of experts are correct, the use of the hot-air blast
     instead of cold air (an improvement in iron manufacture patented
     by Neilson in 1828) was known fifteen hundred years before
     Christ. (See {FURNACE}.)
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Lachish, who walks, or exists, of himself