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LACHISH
Place first mentioned in the Bible in connection with Joshua and the Israelite conquest of Palestine. At that time, its king and army were among the coalition of southern Palestinian towns that faced Joshua at Gibeon. After Joshua’s victory, he executed the king of Lachish and later took the town itself (Jos 10:26, 32). Though David probably brought the town to life again, it gained new significance when King Rehoboam of Judah (c. 920 BC) made it one of his fortified cities to protect the realm against Egyptian and Philistine attacks (2 Chr 11:9). About a century later, Amaziah, king of Judah, was killed at Lachish, where he had fled to escape from conspirators (2 Kgs 14:19).
Lachish resisted valiantly when Sennacherib of Assyria invaded in 701 BC, but it ultimately fell under furious onslaughts (2 Kgs 18:13-17; Is 36). Reoccupied and rebuilt by the Judeans, it was one of the last outposts of Jerusalem to fall to the Babylonians when Nebuchadnezzar invaded in 588–586 BC and brought the southern kingdom to an end (Jer 34:7). In addition to biblical references, the Egyptian Amarna letters and Assyrian records allude to Lachish.
The location of Lachish was long debated. Originally, it was placed at Umm Lakis, then in 1891 at Tell el-Hesi, and finally in 1929 at Tell ed-Duweir, 30 miles (48.3 kilometers) southwest of Jerusalem and 15 miles (24.1 kilometers) west of Hebron. This last identification has now been confirmed by a variety of indicators.
See also Lachish Letters.