The Bible says that “Sennacherib the king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and proceeded to seize them.” Jerusalem’s king Hezekiah, frightened by this threat, “sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish” and offered to buy him off with a heavy tribute.​—2 Kings 18:13, 14.

Does Sennacherib confirm that he was at Lachish? Definitely! He displayed scenes of this siege on large panels in his immense palace that archaeologists studied at Nineveh. These detailed panels in the British Museum show Lachish under attack. Inhabitants stream out in surrender. Captives are led by. Some are impaled on posts. Others pay homage to Sennacherib himself, the very person mentioned in the Biblical account. An inscription in wedge-shaped cuneiform writing says: “Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria, sat upon a nímedu-throne and passed in review the booty (taken) from Lachish.”

The Bible says that Hezekiah paid as tribute “three hundred silver talents and thirty gold talents.” (2 Kings 18:14, 15)

[Pictures on page 26]

Assyrian relief depicting the assault with a siege engine against the fortified Judean city of Lachish

[Credit Line]

Courtesy of the British Museum, London

Tell Lachish. This important outpost in the southwest guarded the Judean hill country until the Assyrians laid siege to Lachish and conquered it

[Credit Line]

Pictorial Archive (Near Eastern History) Est.