Bible Synapse
Lachish reliefs
relief · c. 700–681 BC · Assyria and Babylon · also called Lachish relief, Siege of Lachish reliefs
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- c. 700–681 BC (the carving of the reliefs)
- Found
- South-West Palace of Sennacherib, Nineveh, Iraq. Uncovered by Austen Henry Layard in Room XXXVI of Sennacherib’s South-West Palace during his excavations at Nineveh in the mid-19th century, and shipped to the British Museum.
- Now
- British Museum, London (BM 124911 (the slab with the caption))
- Passages
- 2 Kings 18:13–14, 2 Chronicles 32:9, Isaiah 36:1–2
What it is
A series of carved stone wall panels that lined a whole room of Sennacherib’s palace. They show the assault on a walled hill city: siege ramps and battering rams, archers and slingers, defenders on the towers, then families leaving with their goods, prisoners impaled or flayed, and soldiers carrying off booty. A caption above the king on his throne says, in brief, that Sennacherib, king of the world and king of Assyria, sat in his chair while the booty of Lachish passed before him.
How it connects to the Bible
The Bible places Sennacherib at Lachish during his campaign against Judah: Hezekiah sent his surrender “to the king of Assyria to Lachish” (2 Kings 18:14), and Sennacherib “laid siege against Lachish” while his officers went to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 32:9). The reliefs show the fall of that city from the Assyrian side, and excavations at Tel Lachish have uncovered the siege ramp and the burnt city they depict.