Jeremiah 34:6

TIME WHEN THIS WAS PROPHESIED

"Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, when the king of Babylon's army was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities."

It is a marvelous fact that the details of this siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar have been strikingly confirmed by the spade of the archaeologist within our very generation. "The Mari letters and the Lachish Ostraca (broken pieces of pottery with inscriptions upon them) have been uncovered in the ruins of Lachish during the years 1935-1938, and have been positively dated in this very year of the final siege of Jerusalem."[6] "These treasures were discovered by the Wellcome-Marston Expedition."[7]

"Lachish and Azekah ..." (Jeremiah 34:7). These were important fortified towns, which longer than any others except Jerusalem itself, resisted the Chaldean army. Lachish, at one time, had been larger than Jerusalem itself, and according to the Lachish Letters was the last to surrender prior to the fall of Jerusalem. Lachish was located 23 miles southwest of Jerusalem, and Azekah was eleven miles north of Lachish. Letter No. 4 deals with the very time when this prophecy was written by Jeremiah.

It records urgent military messages from the commander of Jerusalem's defenders to the garrison commander in Lachish, saying, "Let my lord know that we are watching the signals of Lachish (the smoke signals), according to all the indications which my lord has given; for we cannot see Azekah (evidently Azekah had fallen)."[8]

There are also mentioned in these letters a half dozen names, including that of the father of Baruch, which are also found in this section of Jeremiah. Now, not for a moment, do we suppose that anything in the Bible needs to be confirmed either by pagan writers, or by fragments digged up from ancient ruins; but it is interesting and encouraging indeed to find that the deeper the spade of the archaeologist goes, the more is the proof of the truth of every word in the Holy Bible verified.

"This prophecy was given just a short time before Letter IV was written,"[9] because Azekah had not yet fallen (Jeremiah 34:7).