L
- LABAN white. (1.) The son of Bethuel, who was the son of Nahor,
Abraham’s brother. He lived at Haran in Mesopotamia. His sister Rebekah
was Isaac’s wife (Genesis 24). Jacob, one of the sons of this marriage, fled
to the house of Laban, whose daughters Leah and Rachel (ch. 29) he
eventually married. (See JACOB.)
(2.) A city in the Arabian desert in the route of the Israelites
(Deuteronomy 1:1), probably identical with Libnah (Numbers 33:20).
- LACHISH impregnable, a royal Canaanitish city in the Shephelah, or
maritime plain of Palestine (Joshua 10:3, 5; 12:11). It was taken and
destroyed by the Israelites (Joshua 10:31-33). It afterwards became, under
Rehoboam, one of the strongest fortresses of Judah (2 Chronicles 10:9). It
was assaulted and probably taken by Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:14, 17; 19:8;
Isaiah 36:2). An account of this siege is given on some slabs found in the
chambers of the palace of Koyunjik, and now in the British Museum. The
inscription has been deciphered as follows:, “Sennacherib, the mighty king,
king of the country of Assyria, sitting on the throne of judgment before the
city of Lachish: I gave permission for its slaughter.” (See NINEVEH.)
Lachish has been identified with Tell-el-Hesy, where a cuneiform tablet
has been found, containing a letter supposed to be from Amenophis at
Amarna in reply to one of the Amarna tablets sent by Zimrida from
Lachish. This letter is from the chief of Atim (=Etam, 1 Chronicles 4:32)
to the chief of Lachish, in which the writer expresses great alarm at the
approach of marauders from the Hebron hills. “They have entered the
land,” he says, “to lay waste...strong is he who has come down. He lays
waste.” This letter shows that “the communication by tablets in cuneiform
script was not only usual in writing to Egypt, but in the internal
correspondence of the country. The letter, though not so important in
some ways as the Moabite stone and the Siloam text, is one of the most
valuable discoveries ever made in Palestine” (Conder’s Tell Amarna
Tablets, p. 134).