Bible Synapse
Lachish letters
Inscription · c. 588 BC · Assyria and Babylon · also called Lachish ostraca, Lakhish letters
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- c. 588 BC (the letters)
- Found
- Tel Lachish, Israel, 1935. Eighteen were found by J. L. Starkey’s Wellcome–Marston expedition in January and February 1935; three more came to light in 1938.
- Now
- British Museum (most of them), London
- Passages
- Jeremiah 34:7, Jeremiah 38:4
What it is
Letters written in ink on potsherds, in Hebrew, mostly from an officer named Hoshaiah at an outpost to Yaush, probably the commander at Lachish. In Letter 4 he says that his men are watching for the fire signals of Lachish, for they cannot see Azekah. Letter 3 reports that the army commander, Coniah son of Elnathan, has gone down to Egypt and mentions a warning from “the prophet”; Letter 6 complains that the words of the officials weaken the hands of the men.
How it connects to the Bible
Jeremiah 34:7 describes the moment when Babylon’s army was fighting “against Lachish, and against Azekah”, the last fortified cities left in Judah. Letter 4’s remark about not seeing Azekah fits that moment; some take it to mean that Azekah had already fallen. The complaint in Letter 6 echoes the charge made against Jeremiah, that “he weakeneth the hands of the men of war” (Jeremiah 38:4).
What scholars debate
The readings of several letters are uncertain, and the prophet of Letter 3 is not named.