Tonight as I was out walking I listened to the second half of II Kings. While listening the name of a very familiar place caught my ear a couple of times.
This of course was Lachish where I have spent four weeks on an archaeological dig over two seasons and also visited at two other times.
In II Kings 14 King Amaziah flees to Lachish, but is captured and put to death. He most likely was seeking the security of the large palace in the city, and of course the protection of the walls.
Lachish was the second largest city in Judah at that time.
Here is the gate area from the time period of Hezekiah. Lachish was not mentioned in II Kings in regards to Hezekiah’s reforms, but it is most likely that it was involved.
See: The Lachish Latrine
In II Kings 18 during the reign of King Hezekiah we find that King Sennacherib of Assyria came up against the fortified cities which included Lachish. In the picture above you can see the remains of the siege ramp that the Assyrians built.
This siege is well documented in sources outside the bible.
The Israel Museum has copies of the Lachish reliefs that were uncovered in Ninevah. The originals are in the British Museum. I need to sometime find the pictures that I took of them when I was there years ago.
I need to go back to the British Museum someday as they did not have the significance to me then that they do now.
I finished II Kings tonight and listened to the first two chapters of I Chronicles before making it back home. The more times I listen through the Bible the more names stand out when I listen to the genealogies of I Chronicles.
Steven
Braman's Wanderings 