Ussishkin (2014: 214) wrote that “it is not at all clear why the fortified city of Lachish Level IV came to an end and Level III was built.” He noted changes to the city gate, episodes of building and rebuilding in domestic structures in Area S, and modifications to the superstructures—but not the foundations—of the Palace Fort and the Southern Annex, while “the city walls seem to have continued in use unchanged.” Level III structures were described as resembling their Level IV predecessors. Numerous broken pottery vessels found in Level IV domestic dwellings in Area S were thought to “allude to sudden destruction,” yet “nothing was found that would indicate that this destruction had been intentional or that an enemy had set fire to it.” Moshe Kochavi, who had excavated with Yigal Yadin at Hazor in 1955 ( Roberts, 2012), reportedly visited Lachish in 1976 and suggested that Level IV was destroyed by the ~760 BCE Amos earthquake ( Ussishkin, 2014: 215). While Ussishkin reported this suggestion as a possibility, he has not treated it as a certainty—or even a probability—in subsequent publications on Lachish.

Roberts (2012: 181) proposed an alternative historical scenario. He noted that 2 Kings 14 recounts the flight of Amaziah, King of Judea, from Jerusalem to Lachish in ~767 BCE ( 2 Kings 14:19; 2 Chronicles 25:27). In this reconstruction, Amaziah would have fled to Lachish with a cohort and walled himself up within the city. The biblical accounts record that Amaziah was killed at Lachish, an act which would have been carried out with the “knowledge and even consent” of Uzziah, the king of Judah who replaced him ( Roberts, 2012: 181, citing Rainey, 1983: 14). This interpretation would imply a limited military conflict at Lachish, leading to destruction and followed by selective rebuilding, possibly including changes to cultic installations consistent with the policies of Uzziah.