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Lachish

Lachish

Lachish is located 29 mi. [46 km.] west southwest of Jerusalem in the Judean Shephelah.  Joshua defeated its king (Josh 10:12:11).  The Judean king Rehoboam fortified it shortly after the death of Solomon (2 Chron 11:9).  The Assyrian king Sennacherib captured the town in 701 B.C. (2 Kgs 18 14, 17: 19:8; 2 Chron 32:9; Isa 36:2; 37:8; Micah 1:13) as did the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 34:7).  It is mentioned frequently in extrabiblical sources.

It was excavated in the 1930's by J. L. Starkey, in the 1960's by Y. Aharoni, and in the 1970's by D. Ussishkin and his colleagues.

For a description of the excavations see Ussishkin, David. “Answers at Lachish." Biblical Archaeology Review vol. 5 no. 6 (1979): 16–39 and Ussishkin, David "Lachish." Pages 897-911 in The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land - vol. 3. Edited by Ephraim Stern, Ayelet Lewinson–Gilboa, and Aviram. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.