Eltekeh

Eltekeh was a town in the tribal inheritance of Dan in the Shephelah lowlands (Joshua 19:44) and one of the four Danite cities set apart as Levitical cities for the Kohathite Levites (Joshua 21:23). It rose to wider historical prominence during the Assyrian invasion of Judah in 701 BCE: Sennacherib's royal annals describe a great battle at Eltekeh where the Assyrians routed an Egyptian-Kushite relief force sent by Pharaoh Shabaka or his commander Taharqa to break the siege of Jerusalem (the battle parallels the events recounted in 2 Kings 18-19 and Isaiah 36-37). The site is generally identified with Tel Shalaf or Tel Melat in the inner Shephelah east of Ekron and Jabneel — strategically placed on the route the Egyptian army would have taken north from the coastal road. Eltekeh stands as one of the rare cases where biblical narrative and an ancient Near Eastern king's annals describe overlapping events that can be cross-checked.