The Lachish Reliefs: A Picture of the Biblical Past

What if you could see a picture of a biblical event carved in stone? In this episode of Digging Deeper, we explore the Lachish Reliefs, ancient carvings commissioned by King Sennacherib of Assyria to commemorate his brutal siege of the city of Lachish—one of Judah’s last strongholds. These detailed panels, now housed in the British Museum, vividly align with the biblical account found in 2 Kings 18–19, offering a striking example of how archaeology and the Bible intersect.

Discover the historical context of the Assyrian invasion, the significance of Lachish in the biblical narrative, and how these reliefs serve as a powerful reminder of God's justice and the consequences of turning away from His commands. Featuring insights from archaeologists and Bible scholars, this episode sheds light on one of the most dramatic and visually documented moments in ancient history.

Transcript

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Have you ever read through the Bible and asked yourself, wouldn't it be great to have a picture of this event? Well, of course, cameras were not invented until well after the events of the Bible. But interestingly, that does not mean that we don't have some pictures of some biblical events. And that's what we're going to talk about on today's episode of Digging Deeper. Welcome to Digging Deeper, the podcast where we talk about the geography, archeology, people and cultures of the lands of the Bible by exploring those areas, we hope to broaden your understanding of the biblical narrative. You can learn more about all of us here at Appian Media, and watch our free video series at appianmedia.org. Our sponsors for today's episodes are the CIA Bookstore and Sacred Connections. We'll be more than happy to tell you a little bit more about them a little later in our show. So Dan. Welcome. Well thank you. Good to see you too. Okay. So we want to talk about these pictures that have been taken. So set the stage for us. give us kind of an area of the Bible that we need to look to about where we're going to have these pictures made. Well, if you think about the United Kingdom, some king. Yeah. And then right after that, kingdoms are divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. Right. neither of these nations, was always doing what was right. Right. The god. Yeah. The northern one. A lot less than the southern. But despite the prophets being sent by God and all the warnings, they didn't change. And so God started sending nations to teach them a lesson because he told them, if you don't obey these bad things are going to happen pretty soon. 722 BC The Assyrians conquered Samaria and the northern kingdom was like, okay, Syrians aren't done. They're wanting to conquer everybody. They had their eyes on their southern kingdom of Judah. So they come down and they start capturing a number of cities of Judah. And they came to one of the final strongholds that was left the city of Lachish. Okay. So, so describe to me where where Lachish is in the in the land of Israel. If you're looking at a map, where would you look? Okay. If you look at the southern portion of the modern country where you think about the you have the Mediterranean in, and then you go a little bit east, that would have been the sheep fallow which are these lowland kind of little hills with a lot of important valleys. Okay. Right. Okay. So Lachish was located down in this Shaler, like you said. Yes. On the southern end. It was very important because anybody coming up from the south. That's right at your rear door. Okay. Big important city to protect. And that's what Lachish was doing. Okay. Well, you mentioned the Assyrians coming down, did they did. Conquered as well. You can visit Lachish today, Yeah. Yeah. There's there's a wonderful tel there. And since. Yeah. Okay. How about I toss up? Okay. Let you to tell us. What is it? Well. Okay. That's a that's actually a good question. A tel is a an artificial mound basically. It it happens when, a people come into a region and they build a city, they find a place to get water, and they'd say, this is a place to build, a town. And they do. And then for one reason or another, either they're captured or they vacate the area or something. The town is, deserted and, given time, dust kind of comes in and fills in the, you know, covers up the what was left. then 100 years later, another people come in and they build a city there, and they build on top of this. And so a tail is an artificial mound of all of these layers of civilizations throughout, throughout history. And so there is a wonderful tale at Lachish. It's been, worked on a number of times by archeologists. And when you approach that, that site, as soon as you get off the bus, you're struck by this, not only the size of the tail, but there seems to be an extra appendage or something off the off the southern end of it. what you realize is that and learn from not only the signage there, but, in, in study is that that's actually the what's left over of a siege by the Assyrians that you just mentioned. When the Assyrians attacked Lachish, they built this siege ramp so that they could then attack the city and, of course, gain access to the city. And it's a wonderful thing to see personally. But, you know, as you stand there, you you try to envision what that would look, have, look like, you know, with the siege ramp and all the people and maybe the Israelites up on top, trying to battle against the Syrians coming in. And, as I said, you kind of you want to envision what that looks like. Well, as it turns out, you can you there's actually a picture of this event. it's on display. Let me guess. Go ahead. You got it. You got it. It's at the British Museum. So let me turn it back over to you. Now, why don't you tell us how this picture ended up in the British Museum? I think you kind of have to know a little bit about what happened. Okay. So in Second Kings 19, we read about Sennacherib coming down, and we, read about Hezekiah praying. And the angel of God coming and striking down 185,000 Syrians and they go back home. Jerusalem was never captured, but the keys had been captured. And if you are a king, you want to brag about your country. Right? Right? Yeah. Lachish is not a capital city. But when Sennacherib went back to Nineveh, He actually made decorations. He took these reliefs, kind of like a picture carved in stone. And he decorated the walls of his palace with pictures of the conquest. And, Right. Which is really odd. That's the capital city. That's the one to celebrate. But he actually never made there. But he he never he never got to the narrow part of the siege works. Yes. Some of his officers were outside telling him they need to give up. those were excavated. Okay. And country of Iraq. Okay. It was Iraq. And they were taken by the archeologists who were doing the dig back to their home country. And so you can actually go to the British Museum and walk down. Unfortunately, when I was there, I could just look down the rooms. Yeah, some great pictures, but not closeups. But you see on these panels the entire story of. Okay, okay. One panel, actually, you can see the seeds, right? Okay. You see. Yeah. You go to the panel. Yeah. Oh, here it is. And they have this battering ram up on it. Yeah. And you can see the fire, the actually the fire arrows being shot. Okay. You can see the sling stones being thrown. Unfortunately, the Assyrians were not known for being very humane. Yeah. And you can see what happened to the captured people and captured. Okay. It's it's quite graphic. Yeah. One of them, you can actually see the Syrians bringing their gifts back to Assyria. To their gods. Okay. King of Assyria. Wow. So the whole story is displayed on this, on this mural for, for lack of a better word on that was on the palace of snacker back in Nineveh. you actually, when you when you look at it, it makes you realize these things really happened. Yeah. And before this was discovered, you might have heard authors talk about how bad the Assyrians or how graphic they were. And then you actually see, they bragged about. Right? They were a very cruel people. Right. God, in turn, judge them. Well, let's take a break for a second and have a word from our sponsors. During the entire history of Appian Media, we have had several companies reach out to us and offer to sell our products. One of the first to contact us was seeA bookstore. CTA bookstore has been in business for over 70 years and is a nonprofit religious bookstore and retail supplier of Bibles, books, church supplies, and other religious resources. They're located in Athens, Alabama, but serve customers across the entire United States. If you're in need of any of the wonderful products they offer, we encourage you to reach out to them through their website at Truth books.com. Sacred connections is a safe online space for Christians to connect and build meaningful relationships. With a focus on community and channels dedicated to various interests and events, there is something for users at every life stage and right now. When you download the app, you used the code digging deeper to receive a special discount for all listeners of the Digging Deeper podcast. So we invite you to start your journey by going to their website today and learning more. Their address is Sacred connections.com. Now back to the show. Well, Mary, we had the opportunity to speak with one of our good friends and mentor to both of Yes. Farrell. Jenkins. really neat thing about this topic is he has actually participated in archeological digs application. Yes. we had an opportunity to sit down with him into talk about his experiences. And so let's, let's just listen to some of what we talked about with him. We appreciate your time. Barry and I have been talking to Pharrell Jenkins, who has worn many hats through the years. Professor at Florida College, a preacher. You've been leading tours since 1967 over to the not only the Bible lands, but around the world. Led tours for 50 years. And, 2016 was my 50th year. And so I decided that was enough tours to lead. And I don't know how many times I've been to Israel I haven't counted them up, but probably 60, 70 times, I don't know, maybe. Yeah. So you having worked there, with the dig, studying history, studying the Bible, I obviously like you think they all agree. But the significance of this city when we see the reliefs in the British Museum and we read snack groups prison. Can you touch on kind of why he bragged about this city rather than another city? Well, it was a strong city. It was a significant city. He would have bragged on Jerusalem had he'd taken it and forgotten. Yeah, he did say they took 40 Judean cities, I believe in his. And so he took a lot of cities, and some of them must have been very small, because there's not that many down through there, you know, that he would have taken, I guess some of them would surrender, that really did show the power of the Assyrians to go that far away from their home and to be able to do all these pictures and then the people that were killed and And then to see these people on their little carts heading off, you know, with one bag of grain, maybe. Yeah. And, just really a sad thing. Everybody should go to the British Museum and see that original. The original is better than the replica in the Israel Museum, but you can't get to both places that that would work out. Okay. Yeah. To see it that just. What would a typical day be like? Oh. You dig? Okay. You you got up before. Before dark, before daylight, and, you got, like a piece of toast and jam and maybe coffee if you like coffee. And I'm not sure if I drank any or not, because, I didn't until I retired. But, that that's what was available. You jumped on the back of a truck, and they drive you to the base of the tail. Yeah. You still got to walk up. You got to walk up. And it's almost like, same as the ram, because you just got to come up to the level of the gate. Yeah. So you walk down there, up to here, you come in and go to your respective places to work. Then about,

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00, maybe something like that could be earlier or later. You have a lunch spread out. Okay. And so I mean, breakfast. Yeah, but the real breakfast. Right? Sorry. Yeah. Breakfast. Not all that good, but. Yes. And so you eat it, and they're big on cucumbers over there. So you need that. And, that's at sun up and the sun would be coming up. You'd see it over here. Over. Marisha. It's important. So you could say. Marisha. And you remember the way the, like your letters read was we can no longer see the, the flowers from Zika. So as they go was beyond there. They couldn't see those. Yeah. Letters anymore. And that meant the Assyrians were were coming. It was bad. And the Assyrians did. When they're. And then they went to Jerusalem and only has a cache having built a fortification as well as the tunnel. That's the only thing that saved the city. Yeah. And I want to tell you, I like to talk about what the Assyrians did. People just realized. And. Eight 3735 they started at, Hazor and took it. They came in from the north. Then in, seven, 21, 22, they came to some area and they took it. And then when they came on down here to, what time was it, 810 or 801, something like that. I forgotten the exact date. Like they, they captured this city and almost captured Jerusalem. And there they are in this country for all this length of time. And, when I talked about the Bible, lands and customs, you just think of the food they ate up, the cattle they kill to eat, the grain they used and all those things taking from the people and taking care of their military. Well, sure. And if they were in the if they were in the land for that that long, they were people who lived there who never, never understood the land without the Assyrians in it. Yes, yes. That's correct. So you have a blog where you, you write about, a lot of biblical places. What is that? What is that blog? Well, it's Carroll Jenkins dot blog. There we go. Well, we appreciate it very much. Yeah, we appreciate it. You have been a mentor and a friend to both of us, and we just appreciate you taking the time to spend with us. I'm really delighted to do that. I've considered you both friends for a long time. I remember Well, that was wonderful. We are. So. Yeah, that was that was wonderful. His years of service to the Lord, as well as just his knowledge, that he has shared with everybody. He actually does. He has a blog that he he does. He posts that actually on Facebook as well. And so I never read one of his blog posts without learning. I am the exact same way. It's a pleasure to read every one of those. as believers of the Word of God, we don't necessarily need archeology to prove the words of the text to us because of our faith, but thankfully, through archeology, we do get that proof as well as we learn about the culture of the peoples in the times. The land of the Bible. Every now and then, though, we do find something that really gives us something to remember. They're released from sin across palace at the siege of Lachish is a wonderful example of that. The ability to see and graphic detail, the horrible details of the event is a visual reminder of what happens when people do not listen to God. For centuries, the prophets had warned the people of Judah about their lifestyle. In addition, those people had watched the brothers and sisters in the Northern Kingdom fall to the same Assyrians due to their ungodly behavior. What about our lives? The same God that was in the southern kingdom of Judah continues to warn us through His word. We need to listen to what he says so that we don't meet a similar fate. And thanks to snacker of the King of Assyria, we have a vivid reminder for us all. Digging deeper is a production of Appian Media. We're a nonprofit media production company that is 100% crowdfunded. If you're interested in learning more about how you can support Appian Media so that we can continue to create more great free content, visit us at www.appianmedia.org/listen If you'd like to contact us, you can reach either one of us at Dan Kingsley at Appian media.org or Barry Britain Ale at Appian media.org. We would love to hear from you and answer any questions that you might have. A special thank goes to the entire Appian Media team who has helped us with this episode, and putting it all together for you. And of course, thanks always goes to those donors who make this podcast possible. Join us next time when Dan and I are going to look into some burial practices of the Jewish people during the first century. How did that happen and how did it relate to what we read in the Bible? That's what we'll be discussing. Until then, thank you for joining us, and we look forward to being with you on the next episode of Digging Deeper.