EXHIBIT OF BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 971 



the kings of Assyria come and find mucli water T' and "This same 

 Hezekiah also stopped the upper springs of the waters of Gihon, and 

 brought them straight down on the west side of the City of David." 

 It is certainly one of the oldest known Hebrew inscriptions.' 



Cast op the Lachish tablet. — Lachish was one of the capitals 

 of the Canaanites, situated southeast of Jerusalem, between Gaza and 

 Eleutheropolis. It was concjuered by Joshua.'^ The Assyrian King 

 Sennacherib besieged it during his invasion of Judah, 701 B. C.,' and, 

 according to the Assyrian inscriptions, captured it. An interesting- 

 Assyrian relief represents Sennacherib seated on a throne receiving 

 the tribute of his captives and vassals, accompanied by an inscription 

 containing the statement that the decree was enacted at Lachish. 

 Later on it succumbed to Nebuchadnezzar. The ruins of ancient Lach- 

 ish. now called Tell el-Hesy, have been explored during the last few 

 years by the Palestine Exploration Fund, and in 1892 Dr. F. Jones 

 Bliss, an American archaeologist in charge of the work, discovered 

 there a small clay tablet, inscribed' with cuneiform characters, and in a 

 Semitic dialect akin to the Aramaic. The inscription dates before the 

 conquest of Palestine by the Israelites, and contains a letter from the 

 chief of the territory adjoining Lachish, probably to the governor of 

 Lachish, complaining that marauders from the neighboring region are 

 besetting Atim, which is probably identical with Etam, in the south of 

 Judah, mentioned in I Chronicles iv, 32, and Samhi or Sam'a, now 

 probably represented by the large ruin of Sam'ah, 5 miles to the south of 

 Etam. The original is now in possession of the Turkish Government.^ 



Cast of the seal of Haggai, son of Shebaniah. — The origi- 

 nal seal of black stone was found in 1857 by Sir Charles Warren, near 

 the Haram-esh-Sherif, the mosque of Omar on the site of the temi)le 

 at Jerusalem.^ The names Haggai and Shebaniah, which the seal 

 bears, have not been identified. They are possibly connected with the 

 rebuilding of the temple after the exile. 



The use of seals or signet rings is already mentioned in the Patri- 

 archal epoch.^ The seal was either hung on a string around the neck 



' E. J. Pilcher, in the Proceediugs of the Biblical Archaiology Society, XIX, pp. 165- 

 182, would place the Siloam inscription as late as the time of Herod 1 (47-4 B. C); 

 compare, however, the arguments for the usual date of about 700 B. C. by Lieut. Col. 

 C. R. Conder in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, 1897, pp. 204-208. 

 Compare Idem, 1881, pp. 141-157, 282-297; 1894, pp. 269-277; Canon Driver. Notes on 

 the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel, etc., pp. xiv. The " Higher Criticism "" and 

 the Verdict of the JMonuments by A. H. Sayce, 2d. ed., London, 1894, p. 376, 



-.Joshua X, 3, 31 and 32. 



^11 Kings sviii and xix; Isaiah xxxvi and xxxvii. 



••A. H. Sayce, Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1893, pp. 2.5-30, 

 and C. R. Conder, The Tell Amarna Tablets, pp. 131-134. 



"■See the Recovery of Jerusalem, by Captain Wilson, R. E., Captain Warren, R, E., 

 with an introduction by Arthur Peuryhn Stanley, edited by Walter Morrison, New 

 York, 1871, pp. 95,385. 



''Genesis xxxviii, 18, E, J. Pilcher in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical 

 Archaology, xix, p. 172, attributes the sc^al to the time of Herod I (37-4 B, C), because 

 it was found at the base of the temple wall. 



