Shiloh

From Bible Encyclopedia

Shiloh (1)

shī´lō (שׁילה, shīlōh):

Generally understood as denoting the Messiah, “the peaceful one,” as the word signifies (Genesis 49:10). The Vulgate Version translates the word, “he who is to be sent,” in allusion to the Messiah; the Revised Version, margin, “till he come to Shiloh;” and the Septuagint, “until that which is his shall come to Shiloh.” It is most simple and natural to render the expression, as in the King James Version, “till Shiloh come,” interpreting it as a proper name (comp. Isaiah 9:6).

The prophecy in Genesis 49:10, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah,... until Shiloh come,” etc., has been the subject of very diverse interpretations. the Revised Version margin gives as alternative renderings, “ 'Till he come to Shiloh having the obedience of the peoples' Or, according to the Syriac, 'Till he come whose it is,' etc.”

(1) From the earliest times the passage has been regarded as Messianic, but the rendering in the text, which takes “Shiloh” as a proper name, bearing a meaning such as “peaceful” (compare Isaiah 9:6, “Prince of Peace”), labors under the difficulty that Shiloh is not found elsewhere as a personal name in the Old Testament, nor is it easy to extract from it the meaning desired. Further, the word was not personally applied to the Messiah in any of the ancient VSS, which rather assume a different reading (see below). Apart from a purely fanciful passage in the Talmud (compare Driver, Gen, 413), this application does not appear earlier than the version of Seb. Munster in the 16th century (1534).

(2) The rendering, “till he come to Shiloh,” where Shiloh is taken as the name of a place, not a person, is plausible, but is felt to yield no suitable sense in the context. It is, therefore, now also set aside by most recent scholars.

(3) The 3rd rendering, which regards Shiloh as representing the Hebrew שלּה, shellōh = שׁלה, shīlōh for אשר לו, 'ăsher lō, “whose (it is),” has in its favor the fact that this is evidently the reading presupposed in the Septuagint, the Peshitta, and the this is evidently the reading presupposed in the Septuagint, the Peshitta, and the Jewish Targums, and seems to be alluded to in Ezekiel 21:27, “until he come whose right it is.” In this view the passage has still a Messianic reference, though critics argue that it must then be regarded as late in origin. Other interpretations need not detain us. See for details the full discussions in Hengstenberg's Christology, I, 54 ff, English translation, the commentaries of Delitzsch, Driver, and Skinner, on Genesis (especially Excursus II in Driver), and the articles in the various Bible dictionaries.

See also Prophecy.

Shiloh (2)

(The most usual form is שׁלה, shīlōh, but it appears 8 times as שׁלו, shīlō, and 3 times as שׁילו, Shīlow; Σηλώ, Sēlṓ, Σηλώμ, Sēlṓm):

Shiloh, a place of rest, a city of Ephraim, “on the north side of Bethel,” from which it is distant 10 miles (Judges 21:19); the modern Seilun (the Arabic for Shiloh), a “mass of shapeless ruins.” Here the tabernacle was set up after the Conquest (Joshua 18:1-10), where it remained during all the period of the judges till the ark fell into the hands of the Philistines. “No spot in Central Palestine could be more secluded than this early sanctuary, nothing more featureless than the landscape around; so featureless, indeed, the landscape and so secluded the spot that from the time of St. Jerome till its re-discovery by Dr. Robinson in 1838 the very site was forgotten and unknown.” It is referred to by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:12, Jeremiah 7:14; Jeremiah 26:4-9) five hundred years after its destruction.

Shiloh is a town in the lot of Ephraim where Israel assembled under Joshua at the close of the war of conquest (Joshua 18:1). Here territory was allotted to the seven tribes who had not yet received their portions. A commission was sent out to “describe the land into seven portions”; this having been done, the inheritances were assigned by lot. Here also were assigned to the Levites their cities in the territories of the various tribes (Joshua 18 through 21). From Shiloh Reuben and Gad departed for their homes East of the Jordan; and here the tribes gathered for war against these two, having misunderstood their building of the great altar in the Jordan valley (Joshua 22). From Judges 18:31 we learn that in the period of the Judges the house of God was in Shiloh; but when the sanctuary was moved thither from Gilgal there is no indication. The maids of Shiloh were captured by the Benjamites on the occasion of a feast, while dancing in the vineyards; this having been planned by the other tribes to provide the Benjamites with wives without involving themselves in responsibility (Judges 21:21 ff). While the house of the Lord remained here it was a place of pilgrimage (1 Samuel 1:3). To Shiloh Samuel was brought and consecrated to God's service (1 Samuel 1:24). The sanctuary was presided over by Eli and his wicked sons; and through Samuel the doom of their house was announced. The capture of the ark by the Philistines, the fall of Hophni and Phinehas, and the death of the aged priest and his daughter-in-law followed with startling rapidity (1 Samuel 3; 4). The sanctuary in Shiloh is called a “temple” (1 Samuel 1:9; 1 Samuel 3:3) with doorpost and doors (1 Samuel 1:9; 1 Samuel 3:15). It was therefore a more durable structure than the old tent. See Tabernacle; Temple. It would appear to have been destroyed, probably by the Philistines; and we find the priests of Eli's house at Nob, where they were massacred at Saul's order (1 Samuel 22:11 ff). The disaster that befell Shiloh, while we have no record of its actual occurrence, made a deep impression on the popular mind, so that the prophets could use it as an effective illustration (Psalm 78:60; Jeremiah 7:12 Jeremiah 7:14; Jeremiah 26:6). Here the blind old prophet Ahijah was appealed to in vain by Jeroboam's wife on behalf of her son (1 Kings 14:2, 1 Kings 14:4), and it was still occupied in Jeremiah's time (Jeremiah 41:5).

The position of Shiloh is indicated in Judges 21:19, as “on the north of Beth-el, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Beth-El to Shechem, and on the south of [Lebonah]].” This is very explicit, and points definitely to Seilūn, a ruined site on a hill at the Northeast of a little plain, about 9 miles North of Beitīn (Bethel), and 3 miles Southeast of Khān el-Lubbān (Lebonah), to the East of the highway to Shechem (Nāblus). The path to Seilun leaves the main road at Sinjil, going eastward to Turmus ‛Aya, then northward across the plain. A deep valley runs to the North of the site, cutting it off from the adjoining hills, in the sides of which are rock-hewn tombs. A good spring rises higher up the valley. There are now no vineyards in the district; but indications of their ancient culture are found in the terraced slopes around.

The ruins on the hill are of comparatively modern buildings. At the foot of the hill is a mosque which is going quickly to ruin. A little distance to the Southeast is a building which seems to have been a synagogue. It is called by the natives Jami' el-‛Arba'in, “mosque of the Forty.” There are many cisterns.

Just over the crest of the hill to the North, on a terrace, there is cut in the rock a rough quadrangle 400 ft. by 80 ft. in dimensions. This may have been the site of “the house of the Lord” which was in Shiloh.