| a short season, in cuttings around its sides, arriving
16 LACHISH
at conclusions which the present writer’s more ex- tended work, covering four seasons, modified, but did not materially alter. One-third of the mound being chosen, it was cut down, layer by layer, each layer representing a distinct occupation, until the virgin soil was reached. We have thus the plans of eight cities, the second built on the ruins of the first, the third on the ruins of the second, and so on. This series of superimposed constructions is due to the material. Each city was built of mud-brick, which requiresnothing but mud-brick for its founda- tion The cities were approximately dated by the objects found in situ. The first three or four towns occupied an area abont } mile square, while the ‘ater towns confined themselves to a space about 100 yards square, and may thus be regarded as a series of forts, as almost all are flanked by thick walls. The earliest town was distinguished by peculiar styles of pottery, which have been named Amorite. It also contained a group of unique bronze implements. It is fortified by a strong wall and tower, and may be dated at about B.c. 1700. City Il. is dated by scarabs at about B.c. 1500. City IIT. was buried under a thick bed of ashes. Outside one of its chambers was discovered a cunei- form tablet, which from its style and contents is shown to belong to the period of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, which were letters sent to Amenhotep II. and Iv. of Egypt, about B.c. 1450, by their allies and dependants in Syria, Palestine, and farther east. It mentions the name of Zimridi, who, as we learn in a tablet from Jerus., was governor of L., murdered in that city by servants of the Egyp. king. The hopes suggested by the discovery of this tablet are far-reaching. The date B.c. 1450 for this city is confirmed by scarabs found here. In City IV. (B.c. 1400-1000) Pheen. pottery prevails. Here iron objects first appeared, but these were found in all the superimposed cities. In City V. (about B.c. 1000) ak City VI. (about 800) Jewish ware is prevalent. Cit VI. has a great accumula- tion, from which we infer a long occupation. The red and black figured Greek pottery is common in Cities VII. and VIII., suggesting B.c. 500-400 as the limits of these occupations. The absence of coins and of Roman and Seleucidan remains shows that the site was deserted after B.c. 400.
The remains at Tell el-Hesy thus correspond admirably to the history of Lachish. One of the earlier cities undoubtedly fell a prey to Joshua, a later one was fortified by kehoboam, and we may point with considerable confidence to the thick walls of City VI. as the fortifications taken by Sennacherib, whose sculptures commemoratine the event bear a striking resemblance to Tell acne.
We have, however, in considering the identifica- tion, to count with the phrase of Jerome, ‘nune est villa.’ While the ἐδ] shows no late remains, the adjacent fields are strewn with Roman pottery, and 3 miles away is the slight ruin of Umm-Laiis [but see Clermont-Ganneau, Bibl. Res. in Pal. i. (1896) ᾿ 438), containing Roman remains, which was formerly identified with L. and which Petrie trans- lates, ‘ her [? ; see Mound of Many Cities, p. 141] mother was Lachish.’ He suggests that soon after the return of the Jews from exile they removed the settlement to Umm-Lakis. The name is pro- nounced Laggis by the Arabs, who pronounce a ? like hard g. A change from > to p is not common. But either in the fields near Tell el-Hesy, or at Umm-Lakis, we have late ruins which may easily represent the town still inhabited in the time of Jerome.
LiTERATURE.—Tell el-Hesy (Lachish), by W. M. Flinders Petrie; A Mound of Many Cities, or Tell el-Hesy Excavated, by F. J. Bliss ; both published for the Committee of the PEF by Alexander P. Watt, London. F. J. Buiss.
LADDER
LACK is both a subst. (=want) and a verb (=be deficient in, want). Thus as subst., Ex 16 ‘he that gathered little had no lack’; Job 4" ‘The old lion perisheth for lack of prey’; Ph 2 ‘to supply your lack of service toward me’ (τὸ ὑμῶν ὑστέρημα ; RV ‘that which was lacking in your service’); 1 Th 4 ‘that ye may have lack (χρείαν, RV ‘need’) of nothing.’ Cf. Elyot, Governow, ii. 263, ‘To the one and the other is required the vertue morall called fortitude, whiche as moche as it is a vertue is a Mediocritie or meane betwene two extremities, the one in surplusage, the other in lacke’; T. Lever, Sermons, p. 83, ‘Some doo raveyn and spoyll that which is not their owne, and_be ever in lacke and neede.’ Lever uses the subst. in the plu. also, Sermons, p. 74, ‘These be verye small thinges towardes the amendment of so many lackes, in so great a multitude.’
As a verb ‘lack’ is both trans. and intrans. Thus Ja 1° ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.’ Cf. Ro 2% Tind., ‘An informer of them which lacke diserecion’ ; Pr. Bk. 1549 (Communion), ‘And if there be any of you, whose conscience is troubled and grieved in any thing, lacking comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned priest, taught in the law of God, and confess and open his sin and grief secretly, that he may receive such ghostly counsel, advice, and comfort, that his conscience may be relieved.’ The intrans. use, though Abbott (Shaks. Gram. § 293) gives it in his list of ‘trans. verbs rarely used intransitively,’ is often found in AV. Thus Ps 34° ©The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger’; 1 Co 12% ‘having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked.’ Cf. Pr. Bk. 1552 (Com.), ‘there lacketh nothing but the guests to sit down’; and Hall, Works, ii. 51, ‘Either will or ability lacked in them.’