Lakhish () is a

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

in the northern

Negev The Negev ( ; ) or Naqab (), is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...

in south-central

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Located south-east of Kiryat Gat, it falls under the jurisdiction of Lakhish Regional Council. In , it had a population of . The moshav was named after Tel Lachish, the ancient town of the same name, which is now an archaeological tell, just north of the moshav.

History

Ancient Lachish

Modern Lakhish is located just beneath Tel Lachish, a tell (archaeological mound) that was once the site of an ancient biblical city sharing the same name. This location has seen habitation since the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

, with numerous remnants discovered dating back to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

, when the city found mention in various ancient Egyptian texts. In the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

, Lachish transformed into a fortified city of great significance within the

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...

, ranking second only to the capital,

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. As such, the city was mentioned multiple times in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' large reliefs discovered at

Sennacherib Sennacherib ( or , meaning "Sin (mythology), Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705BC until his assassination in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynasty, Sennacherib is one of the most famous A ...

's palace in

Nineveh Nineveh ( ; , ''URUNI.NU.A, Ninua''; , ''Nīnəwē''; , ''Nīnawā''; , ''Nīnwē''), was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul (itself built out of the Assyrian town of Mepsila) in northern ...

. These reliefs vividly portray the siege and conquest of Lachish by the Assyrian army. Both historical records and archaeological findings provide insight into the lives of the ancient Jewish inhabitants of Lachish, revealing their involvement in cultivating

grapevines ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, bot ...

as a means of sustenance, a practice that continues in the present day.

Modern era

The moshav was founded as a

Nahal Nahal () (acronym of ''Noar Halutzi Lohem'', lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training in entrepr ...

settlement in 1955 on the land of the depopulated

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village of al-Qubayba.

Economy

The economy of Lakhish is based on the cultivation and sale of grapes. In 2006, the moshav built a large reservoir with a capacity of 1.25 million cubic meters to irrigate its 6,000 dunams of vineyards.Agriculture from KKL-JNF Reservoirs
Jewish National Fund

Notable residents

* Yoav Bruck (born 1972), former Israeli swimmer

References

{{Authority control Moshavim Nahal settlements Populated places established in 1955 Populated places in Southern District (Israel) 1955 establishments in Israel Tel Lachish