SHILOH is a term famous among interpreters and commentators upon Scripture. It is found (Gen. xlix. 10) to denote the Messiah. The patriarch Jacob foretells his coming in these words: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” The Hebrew text reads, עו בי יבא שלח, until Shiloh come. All Christian commentators agree that this word ought to be understood of the Messiah, or Jesus Christ; but all are not agreed about its literal and grammatical signification. St Jerome, who translates it by Qui mittendus est, manifestly reads Shiloach “sent,” instead of Shiloh. The Septuagint have it 'Eai; βv iλ⅛η rα a l xo×nμ.na auru; or Eii; an tλ3r∣ ü avtxt∣ra∣, as if they had read שלו instead of שלח, that is, “Until the coming of him to whom it is reserved ;” or “Till we see arrive that which is reserved for him.”

It must be owned, that the signification of the Hebrew word Shiloh is not well known. Some translate, “the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, till he comes to whom it belongs ;” שלח or שלי instead of לי אלו. Others render it,

“till the coming of the peace-maker,” or “the pacific ;” or, “of prosperity,” שלח, prosperatus est. Others, again, “till the birth of him who shall be born of a woman that shall conceive without the knowledge of a man,” שול or שלא secundina, fluxus; otherwise, “the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, till its end, its ruin; till the downfall of the kingdom of the Jews,” שאל or שלח, it has ceased, it has finished. Some rabbin have taken the name Siloh or Shiloh as if it signified the city of this name in Palestine: “The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah till it comes to Shiloh; till it shall be taken from him to be given to Saul at Shiloh.” But in what part of Scripture is it said that Saul was acknowledged as king or consecrated at Shiloh? If we would understand it of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the matter is still as uncertain. The Scripture mentions no assembly at Shiloh that admitted him as king. A more modern author derives Shiloh from שלח, fatigare, which sometimes signifies to be weary, or to suffer; “till his labours, his sufferings, his passion, shall happen.”

But, not to amuse ourselves about seeking out the grammatical signification of Shiloh, it is sufficient for us to show, that the ancient Jews are in this matter agreed with the Christians. They acknowledge that this word stands for the Messiah the King. It is thus that the paraphrasts Onkelos and Jonathan, that the ancient Hebrew commentaries upon Genesis, and that the Talmudists themselves, explain it. If Jesus Christ and his apostles did not make use of this passage to prove the coming of the Messiah, it was because then the completion of this prophecy was not sufficiently manifest. The sceptre still continued among the Jews; they had still kings of their own nation in the persons of the Herods; but soon afterwards the sceptre was entirely taken away from them, and has never since been restored to them.

The Jews seek in vain to put forced meanings upon this prophecy of Jacob, saying, for example, that the sceptre intimates the dominion of strangers, to which they had been in subjection, or the hope of seeing one day the sceptre or supreme power settled again among themselves. It is easy to perceive that all this is contrived to deliver themselves out of perplexity. In vain, likewise, they take refuge in certain princes of the captivity, whom they pretend to have maintained beyond the Euphrates, exercising an authority over their nation little differing from absolute, and being of the race of David. This pretended succession of princes is perfectly chimerical; and though at certain times they could show a succession, it continued but a short time; and their authority was too obscure, and too much limited, to be the object of a prophecy so remarkable as this was.