turn from his Egyptian campaign, or after he had paid a visit to Nineveh, cannot now be determined. See Hezekiah. It is specially mentioned that he laid siege to it "with all his power" (2 Chron. xxxii, 9), and here "the great king" himself remained, while his officers only were dispatched to Jerusalem (2 Chron. xxxii, 9 ; 2 Kings xviii, 17). See Sennacherib. This siege is considered by Layard and Hincks to be depicted on the slabs found by the former in one of the chambers of the palace at Kouyunjik, which bear the inscription "Sen- nacherib, the mighty king, king of the country of As- syria, sitting on the throne of judgment before (or at the entrance of) the city of Lachish (Lakhisha). I give permission for its slaughter" (Layard, Xin. and Bab. p. 149-52, and 153, note). These slabs contain a view of a city which, if the inscription is correctly interpreted,
Attack of Lachish by the Assyrians. From the Monuments,
must be Lachish itself. The bas-reliefs depict the cap- ture of an extensive city defended bj' double walls, with battlements and towers, and by fortified outworks.
The country around is represented as hilly and wooded, producing the fig and the vme. Immense preparations had evidently been made for the siege, and in no othei
Ground-plan of Lachish as taken by the Assyrians. From the Monumeuts.
sculptures were so many armed warriors drawn up in array against a besieged city, which Avas defended with ecjual determination. Tlie process of the assault and sack are given in the most minute and lively man- ner. The spoil and captives are exhibited in fidl, the latter distinguished by their Jewish physiognomy, ajid by the pillaged condition of their garments. On a throne iir front of the -city is represented the Assyr-
ian king giving orders for the disposal of the prison- ers, several of whom are depicted as already in the hands of the executioners, some being stretcJied naked on the ground in order to be flayed alive, while others >vere slain by the sword. (See Layard's Jfomnnents of Nineveh, 2d series, plates 20-24.) See Captive.
Eusebius and Jerome {Onomnst. s. v.) state that in their time Lachish was a village seven miles south
LACHMANN
182
LACOMBE
Jewisli Captives from Lachish. From the Assj-riau Sculptures at Kouyuujik.
(•• to-svards Darom") of Eleutheropolis. The only place that has been found by travellers at all answering to the scriptural notices is Um-Lakis, on the left of the road between Gaza and Hebron, situated " upon a low round knoU, now covered confusedly with heaps of small round stones, with intervals between, among which are seen two or three fragments of marble columns, wholly overgrown with thistles ; a well to the south-east, below the hill, now almost filled up, having also several col- innns around it" (Robinson, JJibUcal Researches, ii, 388). This locality, notwithstanding it is somewhat more dis- tant from iieit-Jibrin (Eleutheropolis) than the Ono- masticon calls for, and likewise to the south-?i-e.s/, and notwithstanding the imperfect agreement in name (sev- eral of the letters being different in the Hcb. and Ara- bic, in addition to the prefix Um [wliich, however, may only denote its importance as a ?«o?/;f;--city]), Kaumer and 'Grosse (in the Studien n.Krit. 1845,1,243 sq.) in- cline to identify with that of Lachish, on the ground of its proximity (see Josh, x, 31-3G) to Eglon (liaumer, Beitrar/e zur biblischen Geor/raphie, 1843, p. "23). With this conclusion Schwarz concurs {Palestine, p. 85), as also Van de Velde {Memoir, p. 329), and Thomson {Land and Book, ii, 35G) ; but Ritter is imdecided {Erdkumle, xvi, 131); By " Daroma," also, Eusebius may have intend- ed, not the southern district, but a place of that name, which is mentioned in the Talmud, and is placed by the accurate old traveller hap-Parchi as two hours south of Gaza (Zmiz in Benj. ofTudela, by Asher, ii, 442). With regard to the weakness of Um-Lakis, Mr. Porter has a good comparison between it and Ashdod {Handbook, p. 261).
Lachniann, Karl, a distinguished German philol- ogist, was born at Brunswick March 4, 1793. lie stud- ied at the universities of Leipzig aud Giittingen, and in 1811 founded, together with Biuisen, Dissen, and Em. 8chulze, the IPhilological Society. In 1813 he entered the army as a volunteer, but, having left it at the conclu- sion of the war, he became professor at the University of Eerhn in 1827, and member of the Academy of that city in 1830. He died at Berlin ]March i;!, 1851. His phil- ological works are distinguished for profound learning and able criticism. He confined himself mainly to edi- tions of classical authors, but he also jniblished an edi- tion of the Greek New Testament (Berlin, 1831 ; 3d ed. 184G; in a larger form, 184G-50). In this edition of the New-Testament Scriptures in the original, "he aimed," .says Dr.W. L. Alexander (Kitto, Bibl. Ci/clop. ii, 7G9), '• at presenting, as far as possible, the text as it was in the authorized copies of the 4th century, liis design be- ing, not to compare various readings witli the received text, but to supply a text derived from ancient authori- ties tlirectly and exclusively. Relin(iuishing the possi- bility of ascertaining what was the exact text of the original as it appeared in the aiitographs of the authors, he set himself to determine the oldest attainable text by means of extant codices. For this purjiose he made use of only a very fe\v ]MSS., viz. A, I>, C, P, Q, T, Z, for the Gospels; D, G, II, for the Epistles; the ante-