lachish

1 definition found

lachish - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :

  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.)