The Lachish Reliefs (1847) & The Siloam Inscription (1880)

Hezekiah was a loyal vassal of Sargon II, but when Sennacherib ascended to the throne in Nineveh, Hezekiah formed alliances with surrounding countries to remove Judah from Assyrian hegemony. It is an indisputable fact that the Assyrians under Sennacherib destroyed the Judean city of Lachish in ca. 701 BC. In addition to the biblical accounts (2 Kgs. 18–19, 2 Chr. 32, and Is. 36–37) the Assyrian texts, archaeological evidence, and the Lachish Reliefs document the event. The twelve reliefs stand over 2.5 m. high and once lined the walls of Sennacherib’s southwest palace at Nineveh which Sir Austen Henry Layard excavated in 1847. The previous year he had excavated the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III at Nimrud. The reliefs now line a similarly shaped room in the British Museum. They depict Sennacherib seated on his throne as he watches the siege of Lachish and the execution of its defenders, three by impaling them on stakes. These three men were likely opposition leaders. The various panels depict slingers, archers, a siege ramp, and a battering ram. Archaeologists have recovered remains of all but the battering ram.

           Although the destruction of Lachish and other Judahite cities was devastating, Sennacherib failed to take the capital city of Jerusalem. Triplicate versions of his annals survived antiquity and can be viewed at the British Museum in London, the Oriental Institute of Chicago, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Regarding his failure to conquer Jerusalem, Sennacherib wrote “I left Hezekiah in Jerusalem, like a caged bird.” Interestingly, 2 Kings 19 tells a different version of the same story.

In the biblical account King Hezekiah calls out to the Lord for deliverance, and in response, the angel of the Lord decimates the Assyrian army, forcing Sennacherib to withdraw. Sennacherib destroyed several Philistine cities in this same campaign. In each instance, he either executed or expatriated the city ruler and his family. Considering Sennacherib’s haughty hubris, it is unreasonable to accept that he voluntarily allowed Hezekiah to remain in Jerusalem and to rebuild the Kingdom of Judah. Taken together, the account in Sennacherib’s annals and the 2 Kings 19 account provide a fascinating synchronism in which the supporting details align, except for the reason for the Assyrian withdrawal.

               In preparation for the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem, Hezekiah ordered the construction of a subterranean channel to redirect the flow of the Gihon Spring from outside Jerusalem’s walls to inside the fortifications, thus creating the Pool of Siloam (2 Chr. 32:1–5). Two teams worked from opposite ends, and where they met, Hezekiah commissioned an inscription to commemorate the achievement. A boy bathing in the tunnel in 1880 discovered the inscription, now known as “The Siloam Inscription.” Like most important finds prior to the Ottoman Empire’s collapse in 1917, it is on display at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. The inscription reads as follows:

The tunneling was completed … while the hewers yielded the axe, each man toward the other, axe against axe, the water flowed from the spring to the pool, a distance of 1200 cubits.

The seemingly long odds of the workers from opposite ends connecting in the middle are considerably narrowed by the fact that they followed a meandering soft fissure in the limestone. Nonetheless, it was an amazing accomplishment which tourists relive daily as they walk through the waist-high waters of Hezekiah’s tunnel.

Written by: Dr. Scott Stripling

TBS Provost and 3J Museum Director

Open Bible (2025) advisor and contributor.

ScottStripling.net