The Lachish letters — "we are watching for the signals of Lachish"
Letters from the last weeks of Judah, found in the ash of the gate they were written in, name the two cities Jeremiah names — one of them apparently already dark.
Підтверджено розкопкамиНаписc. 588 BC
Military dispatches written in ink on potsherds, found in the burnt debris of the gate. Letter IV reports watching for the fire-signals of Lachish "because we cannot see Azekah". Jeremiah, writing in the same months, says the king of Babylon's army was fighting against Jerusalem, Lachish and Azekah — "for these defenced cities remained."
We are watching for the fire-signals of Lachish, according to all the signs which my lord has given, for we cannot see Azekah.
- Знайдено
- The gate guardroom at Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir), Israel, 1935 — James Starkey's excavation
- Зберігається
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem; British Museum, London
- Мова
- Hebrew
- Як це дійшло до нас
- Розкопане або досі стоїть там, де його збудували.
Що вона показує
The letters name no biblical figure with certainty. What they show is the situation Jeremiah describes, in the right place, at the right moment.
Як це використовують історики
One of the largest corpora of pre-exilic Hebrew prose; standard in the study of Hebrew epigraphy and of the Babylonian campaign.
У Писанні
Пов'язано з
Джерела
- Torczyner, Lachish I: The Lachish Letters (1938)
Поки що ці тексти англійською. Переклади з'являться згодом.