Lachish
לָכִישׁ
Where was biblical Lachish? At Tel Lachish, near Moshav Lachish, about 45 km southwest of Jerusalem. I mark it certain.
Sennacherib of Assyria camped at Lachish, built a ramp of stones against its walls, and took Judah's second city. He was so proud of it that he had the siege carved on the walls of his palace in Nineveh.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tel Lachish, near Moshav Lachish
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Lakhish, Lakisu, Tell ed-Duweir, Tel Lachish
- Location
- 31.5652° N, 34.8486° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The Bible sets the scene. Joshua besieged Lachish and took it on the second day. King Amaziah fled to Lachish and was killed there. When Hezekiah sent his surrender to Sennacherib, the Assyrian king was at Lachish. From there he sent his officer, the Rabshakeh, to threaten Jerusalem.
Then the Assyrians tell their side. The palace reliefs from Nineveh show the siege of "Lakisu," and the excavated city matches them. There is a massive gate complex. There is a city destroyed in Hezekiah's time. There is an Assyrian siege ramp, the only one known anywhere, still sloping up toward the wall. And inside the wall, Judah's defenders piled up a counter-ramp to meet it.
A century later Lachish fell again, this time to Babylon. In the gate, excavators found letters written on pottery from the last days before the Babylonian conquest. One officer writes that he is watching for the signals of Lachish, because "we cannot see Azekah." Jeremiah names the same two towns as the last fortified cities left in Judah. Hundreds of royal jar handles and a second destruction layer from Nebuchadnezzar's campaign complete the picture.
In the 19th century some placed Lachish at Tell el-Hesi, near a ruin whose name seemed to echo it. The digs at Tel Lachish ended that idea.
Visiting today
Tel Lachish National Park has the restored gate complex, the Assyrian siege ramp, the podium of the palace-fort and the city walls. The Nineveh reliefs are in the British Museum.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Lachish on the interactive map →
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- Mareshah 6 km northeast
- Makkedah 12 km east
- Gath 15 km north
- Azekah 17 km northeast
- Adullam 17 km northeast
- Socoh 18 km northeast