At the time of King Hezekiah, Lachish was the second-most important fortress in Judah after the capital in Jerusalem. There is not a lot to see on top of the tel, since there are no reconstructions other than the main gate, and most of ancient Lachish was either destroyed or is buried. However, there are many explanations and pictorial reconstructions on the tel to make up for this. Unlike much else in the Bible, it is possible to compare he biblical account of Hezekiah’s rebellion against the Assyrians with Assyrian texts and to appreciate the advice proffered by the prophet Isaiah.
In the Sh’felah, close the bank of the Lachish Stream, Lachish occupies an important strategic position overlooking the Via Maris between Egypt and Mesopotamia and the road to Hebron.
Lachish reached its peak as a Canaanite city in the Middle Bronze age. It was destroyed by fire twice in the mid-12th century BCE and was then only sparsely populated and many assume that this was due to the Israelites.
The city is mentioned in the book of Joshua as being part of a confederation of southern Canaanite cities that were defeated by the Israelites in the Valley of Ayalon. Its territory was assigned to the tribe of Judah, and during the monarchy it became part of the United Kingdom.
When the tribes split apart, Lachish became part of the southern kingdom of Judah. At that time, King Rehoboam, the first king of southern Judah, increased the fortifications of Lachish with massive walls and ramparts, as well as other cities in Judah (II Chronicles 11:9-12). At some time, a royal palace was also built on a platform in the center of the city on Canaanite foundations.
Lachish is well-known because of its siege and capture by Sennacherib in 701 BCE after King Hezekiah attempted to break away from the sovereignty of the Assyrians. King Hezekiah was the 13th king of the Kingdom of Judah and he reigned between approximately 715 to 686 BCE.
To capture the city, Sennacherib built a stone and dirt ramp up to the level of the southern wall.
Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh was discovered in 1845, and among the discoveries was a room with illustrations of this siege on alabaster slabs. A picture of these reliefs is shown on a sign by the Visitor Center. The original alabaster slabs are in the British Museum.
According to the prophet Jeremiah, Lachish and Azeika were the last two fortified cities to fall to the Babylonians in 587 BCE before the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of its inhabitants to Babylon. Lachish was resettled by the Jews on their return from exile. It was finally abandoned after the conquest of Israel by Alexander the Great.
Time: Allow about 1½ hours to go around the periphery of the tel.
Admission: Tel Lachish National Park is maintained by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Hours are 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and Saturday in the summer and 8.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. in the winter. The park closes one hour earlier on Friday and holiday eves. There is an admission charge. There is a Visitor Center which shows a 15-minute movie about the Assyrian attack at the time of Hezekiah. This can be viewed in English with Hebrew subtitles. There are restrooms in the Visitor Center. There are a few picnic benches outside the Visitor Center. This is their English website
Directions: Enter “Tel Lachish” into Waze.
Public transport: There is an infrequent bus to the tel. The closest bus stop is a 900-meter, 11-minute walk to the tel.
Tne main gate into the city from Israelite times.
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Foundations of a palace used by the Jewish governor of Lachish.
The ramp made by the Assyrians against the southern wall
Visiting the site
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After viewing the movie in the Visitor Center, go up to the tel via the modern wooden walkway to the Entrance Gate of the fortress. Notice the ramp by the entrance to the walkway constructed by the Assyrians as part of their successful siege of the city.
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The gateway is from the time of the kings of Judah and consisted of an outer gatehouse and inner gatehouse between which was a broad, paved plaza. The outer gatehouse was well fortified with three massive towers, Important city functions would have taken place within the courtyard such as commerce, law courts and other assemblies. The only access to the city was through this one gate and it would have been closed at night.
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The entire Israelite city was heavily fortified with a 6-meter-wide wall, beneath which was a steep artificial slope built of stones and bricks (called a glacis) to prevent an enemy from scaling the wall, another wall in the middle of the slope and a moat dug around the base of the city wall.
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Much of the inner gate is a reconstruction. It had six chambers, with the three chambers on each side being built during the reign of King Hezekiah.
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Once past the gate, you are on the city’s main street. On your right is a small room with a few steps leading up to it. The remains of two altars were found in the room. The altars were destroyed during the time of King Hezekiah’s reforms. The room was then turned into a latrine, which you can see.
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Make your way to the fork where there is a bench for resting. Go to your left to the palace. This was a large structure built around the time of King Hezekiah on the highest point of the tel and on the ruins of a previous Canaanite structure. Only the foundations are now apparent. It would have been surrounded by a wall and gate house. In its center was a building for the governor of the city. It had a large courtyard, and rooms around the periphery such as residences, store rooms and stables. Store rooms were underneath.
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For a walk that encompasses the periphery of the tel, walk across the courtyard to the other side of the palace and climb down the steps. There is another path here marked by arrows that takes you around the tel. The path will lead you past a section of the city wall to a well from the Middle Canaanite period. It was dug to a depth of 44 meters to reach the water table and would have been adequate to supply the Canaanite city. No equivalent Israelite structure is known.
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Otherwise return to the fork and take this path to the southern wall. It is against this wall that a rampart was erected by the Assyrians. In response, the Judahites built up the ground close to the wall as a counter-ramp as an additional line of fortification by covering the houses. It did not help and the wall was breached by the formidable Assyrian war machine.
Did the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah encourage revolt?
One of the signs on the tel asks the question - Why did King Hezekiah rebel against the Assyrians? But it only partially answers the question. It gives the rather obvious answer - to break free from Assyrian domination with the help of Egypt and Philistine city-states. But this tells us nothing. The more penetrating questions are: how did Hezekiah think that he could get away with it, and why did he ignore the prophet Isaiah’s advice?
Assyria at that time was the dominant empire in the Middle East and in its heyday stretched from Mesopotamia to Egypt. All countries and city-states in between were subservient to it. Its military was technologically very advanced. One of the ways it dealt with the people it conquered was to transfer them to other territories so as to prevent further revolt. In this way millions of people were moved from their homeland.
Hezekiah had an excellent relationship with the prophet Isaiah at the beginning of Hezekiah’s rule, to the extent that Isaiah wrote about him in his book in messianic terms. Hezekiah had taken over the Kingdom of Judah on the death of his father Ahaz. Ahaz had brought pagan practices into his kingdom, including into the Temple itself, and Hezekiah reversed this. He destroyed the high places (bamot) and idol worship throughout the country and reinstituted monotheism into the Holy Temple, although the extent to which the people followed through in their homes is unclear.
The prophet Isaiah had a passivist approach with respect to his foreign policy advice. He did not positively advocate rebellion, and was against Judah putting its faith in anyone other than God. He opposed the country going to Egypt to acquire more horses for their chariots (as per the Biblical law), the construction of a tunnel to divert water to inside the city, and the strengthening of the city wall. From his visions he knew that the Assyrians had the potential to destroy the state. However, Hezekiah disregarded this advice and made an alliance with the Egyptians and Philistine cities against the Assyrians.
Is it possible that Hezekiah feel that his zealotry for God was sufficient to ensure the success of his revolt? He may also have felt that with his alliance with Egypt he was strong enough to defeat the Assyrians. This was a disastrous mistake. The Egyptians were defeated and unable to come to his aid. The Assyrian ruler Sennacherib devastated the Sh’felah, including its main fortress of Lachish, and was now ready to besiege Jerusalem. Many in Jerusalem were ready to surrender.
At this stage, Hezekiah was desperate and made contact again with Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied that the Assyrians would not capture the city, many of the invading army would die and that Sennacherib would be murdered. This is exactly what happened. Nevertheless, although Jerusalem was not conquered, Hezekiah’s kingdom was destroyed and Hezekiah remained a vassal to the Assyrians.
Neither Assyrian nor biblical texts mention why the Assyrian army was destroyed or fled. From this time on, though, there was a decline in the power of the Assyrian empire and Babylon began its slow ascent to rule the Middle East.
By contrast, the prophet Jeremiah was very much opposed to Zedekiah resisting the Babylonians. He felt that the Babylonians were agents of God and judgement was now unavoidable. His passivist approach was thought to be demoralizing and even traitorous, and he was imprisoned and almost killed by the government for opposing King Zedekiah’s revolt against the Babylonians and prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem. Many felt, including other prophets, that the very presence of the Temple was enough to ensure that Jerusalem would not be destroyed.
In conclusion, both prophets were saying that God would not support bold military action, particularly if they put their trust in a foreign power such as Egypt. History proved them right. It was only when the Temple was destroyed that Jeremiah recognized as a true prophet of God.
A Canaanite well.
All the kings of Judah. The ehight of the chairs represents how long they reigned.
Picture of the fortified gate to the city
This cultic area at the entrance to the city was converted into a latrine, presumably by Hezekiah.