Chapter 5

Lord, fulfilling the words, "From the prey, my son, thou goest up," brings him safely to his people.[16]

[Pg 89]

There can be no doubt that in Shiloh, as the name of a place, there is a reference to Gen. xlix. 10. They who rightly denied that Shiloh could, in that passage, be understood as the name of the place, could, nevertheless, not feel satisfied as long as they allowed a twofold Shiloh to exist unconnected with each other. The agreement in the very rare and peculiar form, which nowhere else occurs, cannot well be a matter of accident.

In the Pentateuch, Shiloh does not occur at all as the name of a place. In the passage where Shiloh is first mentioned--in Josh. xvi. 6--another name is beside it, and prefixed to it. According to that passage, the former name was Taanah. (They who are of opinion that this place was different from Shiloh, can find no support from the authority of _Eusebius_; it is not said Taanah by Shiloh, but Taanath-Shiloh.) After that place had become the seat of the Sanctuary, the holy name _Shiloh_ took the place of the former natural one. The reason why this name was given to it is indicated in Josh. xviii. 1: "And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there; _and the land was subdued before them_." Compare also xxi. 44,