And what of Lachish?

Tel Lachish
photo by Orientaliziing (https://www.flickr.com/photos/orientalizing/)

Back in Judah the site of the city and the land which surrounded it was given into the governance of the Philistine city states, most probably Ekron. This is particularly odd if we date the destruction of the city as 701 BCE, since until months before the fall of the city, these same Philistine city states had been allied with Judah against Assyria. It may be that Ekron had not joined the Alliance and was thus been rewarded for loyalty. An alternative explanation would be that if the destruction of Lachish actually happened in 688, it may have been a reward to the city states for not joining in with the renewed rebellion.
It would appear that after the campaign of 688, there was a stable relationship between the government in Jerusalem and their Assyrian overlords. Indeed, it is well documented in the Assyrian archives that King Manasseh, son of and successor to Hezekiah seems to have been a strong supporter of Assyrian rule. There are records of him sending tribute to Nineveh and later of providing support and troops for Ashurbanipal’s campaigns in Egypt. As for Lachish, it seems that the site remained in ruins with little or no evidence of occupation. It is possible that the land surrounding the city were run as an Imperial resources estate administered from a purpose-built centre, such as the one found at Ramat Rehal in the eastern Shephelah. These centres collected the produce and ship them directly back to the Empire’s homeland.