LACHISH OSTRACON #4 Recreation (Clay pottery shard about 5 inches by 3 inches). Writing on both sides. Discovered in 1935-38 by J.L.Starkey in a small guardroom adjoining the outer gate of Lachish sometime shortly before the sack of Jerusalem in 586BC. Translation: May Yahweh cause my lord to hear this very day tidings of good! And now according to everything that my lord hath written, so hath they servant done; I have written on the door according to all that my lord hath written to me. And with respect to what my lord hath written about the matter of Beth-Hataphid there is no one there. And as for Samachiah, Shemachiah hath taken him and brought him to the city. And as for thy servant, I am not sending anyone thither. (today(?), but I will send) tomorrow morning. And let (my lord) know that we are watching for the signals of Lachish, according to all the indications which my lord hath given, for we cannot see Azekah. Gives insight into the grammatical features of Hebrew of the 6th C BC. It was written by an average man not by royalty, a soldier named Hoshniah to a commanding officer at Lachish called Taosh, and is written in a terse telegraphic style. It uses conventional expressions with a flowery salutation and a belittling of the writer referring to himself as a dog. As the fire signals of Azekah could no longer be seen it probably indicates that Azekah has fallen. This conforms the Biblical record in Jeremaih 34:7 stating that the last cities to fall were Azekah, Lachish and Jerusalem.