HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Lachish Letters or ''Lachish Ostraca'', sometimes called ''Hoshaiah Letters'', are a series of letters written in carbon ink containing
Canaanite inscriptions Canaanite may refer to: *Canaan and Canaanite people, Semitic-speaking region and civilization in the Ancient Near East *Canaanite languages *Canaanite religion *Canaanites (movement) Canaanism was a cultural and ideological movement founded i ...
in Ancient
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
on clay
ostraca An ostracon (Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of stone ...
. The letters were discovered at the excavations at Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir). The
ostraca An ostracon (Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of stone ...
were discovered by
James Leslie Starkey James Leslie Starkey (3 January 1895 – 10 January 1938) was a noted British archaeologist of the ancient Near East and Palestine in the period before the Second World War. He was the chief excavator of the first archaeological expedition to ...
in January–February 1935, during the third campaign of the
Wellcome Wellcome () is a supermarket chain owned by British conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings via its DFI Retail Group subsidiary. The Wellcome supermarket chain is one of the two largest supermarket chains in Hong Kong, the other being Parkn ...
excavations. They were published in 1938 by Harry Torczyner (name later changed to Naftali Herz Tur-Sinai) and have been much studied since then. Seventeen of them are currently located in the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...
in London, a smaller number (including Letter 6) are on permanent display at the
Rockefeller Museum The Rockefeller Archeological Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum ("PAM"; 1938–1967), and which before then housed The Imperial Museum of Antiquities (''Müze-i Hümayun''; 1901–1917), is an archaeology museum located in East ...
in
East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the sector of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to the western sector of the city, West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Jerusalem was envisaged as a separat ...
. The primary inscriptions are known as KAI 192–199.


Interpretation

The individual ostraca probably come from the same broken clay pot and were most likely written in a short period of time. They were written to Yaush (or Ya'osh), possibly the commanding officer at Lachish, from Hoshaiah (Hoshayahu), a military officer stationed in a city close to Lachish (possibly
Mareshah Tel Maresha ( he, תל מראשה) is the tell (archaeological mound) of the biblical Iron Age city of Maresha, and of the subsequent, post-586 BCE Idumean city known by its Hellenised name Marisa, Arabised as Marissa (ماريسا). The tell is ...
). In the letters, Hoshaiah defends himself to Yaush regarding a letter he either was or was not supposed to have read. The letters also contain informational reports and requests from Hoshaiah to his superior. The letters were probably written shortly before Lachish fell to the Babylonian army of King Nebuchadnezzar II in 588/6 BC during the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah (ref. Jeremiah 34:7).


Text of the Letters

;Letter Number 1 ''Gemariah son of Hissilyahu, Jaazaniah son of Tobshillem, Hageb son of Jaazaniah, Mibtahyahu son of Jeremiah, Mattaniah son of Neriah.'' ;Letter Number 2 ''To my lord, Ya'ush, may YHWH cause my lord to hear tiding(s) of peace today, this very day! Who is your servant, a dog, that my lord remembered his evant? May YHWH make known(?) to my or a matter of which you do not know.'' ;Letter Number 3 ''Your servant, Hoshaiah, sent to inform my lord, Ya'ush: May YHWH cause my lord to hear tidings of peace and tidings of good. And now, open the ear of your servant concerning the letter which you sent to your servant last evening because the heart of your servant is ill since your sending it to your servant. And inasmuch as my lord said "Don't you know how to read a letter?" As YHWH lives if anyone has ever tried to read me a letter! And as for every letter that comes to me, if I read it. And furthermore, I will grant it as nothing. And to your servant it has been reported saying: The commander of the army Coniah son of Elnatan, has gone down to go to Egypt and he sent to commandeer Hodaviah son of Ahijah and his men from here. And as for the letter of Tobiah, the servant of the king, which came to Shallum, the son of Jaddua, from the prophet, saying, "Be on guard!" your ser at is sending it to my lord.'' Notes: This ostracon is approximately fifteen centimeters tall by eleven centimeters wide and contains twenty-one lines of writing. The front side has lines one through sixteen; the back side has lines seventeen through twenty-one. This ostracon is particularly interesting because of its mentions of Konyahu, who has gone down to Egypt, and the prophet. For possible biblical connections according to Torczyner, reference Jeremiah 26:20–23. ;Letter Number 4 ''May YHWH cause my
ord Ord or ORD may refer to: Places * Ord of Caithness, landform in north-east Scotland * Ord, Nebraska, USA * Ord, Northumberland, England * Muir of Ord, village in Highland, Scotland * Ord, Skye, a place near Tarskavaig * Ord River, Western Austr ...
to hear, this very day, tidings of good. And now, according to everything which my lord has sent, this has your servant done. I wrote on the sheet according to everything which ousent me. And inasmuch as my lord sent to me concerning the matter of Bet Harapid, there is no one there. And as for Semachiah, Shemaiah took him and brought him up to the city. And your servant is not sending him there any
ore --- Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April 2 ...
but when morning comes round -- And may (my lord) be apprised that we are watching for the fire signals of Lachish according to all the signs which my lord has given, because we cannot see Azeqah.'' ; ;Letter Number 5 ''May YHWH cause my od to hear tidings of pea eand of good, ow today, now this very da! Who is your servant, a dog, that you nt your servant the etters? Likeise has your servant returned the letters to my lord. May YHWH cause you to see the harvest successfully, this very day! Will Tobiah of the royal family c e to your servant?'' ; ;Letter Number 6 ''To my lord, Ya'ush, may YHWH cause my lord to see peace at this time! Who is your servant, a dog, that my lord sent him the king's ette ndthe letters of the officer , sayin, "Please read!" And behold, the words of the fficersare not good; to weaken your hands nd to inibit the hands of the m n (?)know hem(?) My lord, will you not write to
hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...
sa ing, "Wh are you behaving this way? ..well-being .. Does the king ..And ..As YHWH lives, since your servant read the letters, your servant has not had eace(?)'' Letter Number 7 This letter contains 10 lines on one side and 4 on the other, but the letters are unreadable due to degradation. ; ;Letter Number 9 ''May YHWH cause my lord to hear ti
ings ''Ings'' is an old word of Old English origin referring to water meadows and marshes. The term appears in place names in Yorkshire (such as Hall Ings, Bradford, Fairburn Ings RSPB reserve, Clifton Ings in York, Derwent Ings, Sutton Ings, ...
of peace and of ood. And nw, give 10 (loaves) of bread and 2 (jars) f wie. Send back word oyour servant by means of Shelemiah as to what we must do tomorrow.'' Translation from Aḥituv, Shmuel. ''Echoes from the Past''. Jerusalem: CARTA Jerusalem, 2008, pg. 85.


See also

*
List of artifacts significant to the Bible The following is a list of inscribed artifacts, items made or given shape by humans, that are significant to biblical archaeology. Selected artifacts significant to biblical chronology These table lists inscriptions which are of particular sign ...
*
Lachish reliefs The Lachish reliefs are a set of Assyrian palace reliefs narrating the story of the Assyrian victory over the kingdom of Judah during the siege of Lachish in 701 BCE. Carved between 700 and 681 BCE, as a decoration of the South-West Palace of S ...
*
Archaeology of Israel The archaeology of Israel is the study of the archaeology of the present-day Israel, stretching from prehistory through three millennia of documented history. The ancient Land of Israel was a geographical bridge between the political and cultu ...


References


Further reading

* Torczyner, Harry. ''Lachish I: The Lachish Letters''. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1938. * Lemaire, A. ''Inscriptions Hebraiques I: Les ostraca'' (Paris, Cerf, 1977). * Rainey, A.F. "Watching for the Signal Fires of Lachis," PEQ 119 (1987), pp. 149–151. * Zammit, Abigail. 2016. ''The Lachish letters : a reappraisal of the Ostraca discovered in 1935 and 1938 at Tell ed-Duweir.'' University of Oxford. Doctoral dissertation * Lachish ostraca at the British Museu


External links

{{commons category, Lachish letters
British Museum, Lachish Letter II
Ostracon Middle Eastern objects in the British Museum Ancient Israel and Judah 1935 archaeological discoveries Hebrew inscriptions Biblical archaeology KAI inscriptions Archaeological artifacts