Jeremiah 34:7

Lachish. This city is mentioned because, next to Jerusalem, it was one of the strongest defenses of Judah (2 Kings 18:13, 14, 17; 2 Chron. 32:9), and because it and Azekah longest resisted Nebuchadnezzar. In 1935 and 1938, 21 letters written in ink on ostraca, or potsherds (see Vol. I, pp. 123, 125; Vol. II, pp. 97, 98), were discovered in the ruins of Lachish. Several of these were written by a certain Hoshaiach, evidently an officer stationed nearby, to Yaosh, the commander of Lachish, preceding the Babylonian invasion. They vividly reveal the unsettled condition of the country on the eve of Judah’s downfall. One letter states: “And let (my lord) know that we are watching for the signals of Lachish, according to all the indications which my lord hath given, for we cannot see Azekah” (W. F. Albright, trans., in J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts [Princeton: University Press, 1950], p. 322). The vehemence with which Lachish was soon after destroyed is evidenced by the fact that so fiercely was the city burned that much of the brickwork of the wall was turned a bright red. These finds at Lachish may reflect the severity of the destruction that befell Jerusalem at the same time. The ruins are now called Tell ed-Duweir.

Azekah. This also was one of the “fenced cities” of Judah (2 Chron. 11:5-12). The site is now called Tell ez-Zakariyeh.