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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadInternational Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Shiloh (2)
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(The most usual form is ש×לה, shı̄loÌ„h, but it appears 8 times as ש×לו, shı̄loÌ„, and 3 times as ש×ילו, Shı̄low; ΣηλωÌ, SeÌ„loÌ„Ì, ΣηλωÌμ, SeÌ„loÌ„Ìm): A town in the lot of Ephraim where Israel assembled under Joshua at the close of the war of conquest (). 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 portionsâ€; 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 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 ( ff). While the house of the Lord remained here it was a place of pilgrimage (). To Shiloh Samuel was brought and consecrated to God's service (). 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 Sam 3; 4). The sanctuary in Shiloh is called a “temple†(; ) with doorpost and doors (; ). 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 ( 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 (; :14; ). Here the blind old prophet Ahijah was appealed to in vain by Jeroboam's wife on behalf of her son (, ), and it was still occupied in Jeremiah's time ().
The position of Shiloh is indicated in , 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 Beitı̄n (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.