Now it happened, when Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;
"Lachish ..."  (Joshua 10:3).  At one time larger than Jerusalem, Lachish was an important fortified city guarding the main road up to Jerusalem from Egypt.  It was about 30 miles southwest of Jerusalem.[15] Paganism was thoroughly entrenched here, and through Lachish, "The idolatry of the Northern Israel was successfully imported into Judah (Micah 1:13)."[16]  (See further comment on this town in Vol. 2 of my series of commentaries on the minor prophets, pp. 291,292).