Lachish again rose from its ashes, and was among the chief of Judah's fortresses when Nebuchad nezzar, king of Babylon, invaded Palestine (Jer. xxxiv. 1-7). It existed still, and was re-occupied by the Israelites after the return from captivity (Neh. xi. 3o). Eusebius describes Lachish as, in his day, a village seven miles distant from Eleuthero polis southward as you go to Darom ' (srpOs parov (.17rL6rTcor eis TO Aapaiadv; Onomast., s.v. Lachis); and Darom was a small province south of Gaza, near the coast. Eleven miles from Eleutheropolis, on the road to Gaza, are the ruins of Hot Ldkis, consisting of heaps of stones and mounds of rub bish, with here and there a few broken fragments of marble and granite columns, strewn over a low hill in the midst of a great undulating plain. At the southern base of the hill is an ancient well, round whose mouth are numbers of sarco phagi and other relics of the wealth and taste of former ages. The name at once suggests the royal city of Lachish ;''.1 and t:;,`:7 ; the word (41, mother,' is often prefixed to Arabic names); and the situation corresponds exactly with the inci dental notices in the Bible. It is in the plain of
Philistia, on the southern border towards Egypt, and only three miles distant from Ajl'an, the ancient Eglon (Handbook for S. and P., p. 260). Dr. Robinson objects to this identification chiefly because Lachish was a place of great strength, and there are no traces of fortifications now ; and because Eusebius and Jerome place Lachish seven miles from Eleutheropolis, whereas Um Lakis is deven. But to this it may be answered that for two thousand years and more Um Lakis has been a ruin, and it has long been the practice in Pales tine to carry away the stones from ruined sites for the construction of new buildings. There can be no doubt about the identity of Ashdod; and though it stood the longest siege on record, it has not a trace of fortifications now (see, however, Robinson B. R., ii. 46; Raumer, 166; Van de Velde, ISS). And farther, the distances given in the Onomastieon cannot always be relied upon. There can scarcely be a doubt that in the desolate ruin of Um Lakis we have all that remains of the Canaanitish city and Jewish stronghold.—J. L. P.