SHILHIM {CT^^ ; LXX B Za\^, A 2fX«(/i ; Vulg. SiHm). — A town of .ludali, in the Ncgeb, or South, wliich is mentioned between Lebaoth and Ain (Jos 15'-). The site was unknown to Eusebius and .Jerome (Onom. s. ZaKtel, Selci), and has not yet been recovered. In the list of towns allotted to Simeon (Jos 19") its ])lace is taken by Sharuhen, anil in 1 Ch 4" by Shaaraim (see Shaahaim, No. 2).
Prom the reading of the LXX, it has been erroneously supjiosed that Shilhim and Ain are the Salini and Aenon of Jn 3=*. See Salim.
C. W. WIL.SON.
8HILLEM, SHILLEMITES. — See Siiallu,m, No. 7.
8HIL0AH.— See SllELAH and Sll.OAM.
SHILOH (usually nhi\ 8 times 'iVp, thrice 'iS's', On 49'" [see tlie next art.] rh'V ; originallv, as the gentilic -jV;' 'Shilonite' shows, p'?»' ; L.XX ZriXu, Zr,\uii, Jg 21'-'' -' 15 ZtjXwi').— The situation of Shiloli is, in Jg 21", described with unusual min- nteness : it is .said to lie 'on the north of licth-el, on the cast side of the highway that giielh up from lieth-el to Shechem, and on the south of LebAnah.' The position of the modern Seiliin corresiionds exactly with this de.scrijilion : as the traveller now journeys along the great north roa<i
which leads to Nflblus (the ancient Shechem), ha passes Beitin (Beth-el) at 10 miles from Jerus. ; at about 8 miles N. of Beitin (near Sinjil), if he turns to _the right for about a mile, and tlien, at Turmus'A3-a, turns northwards and crosses a small plain, he will see rising before him, at 9J miles N.N.E of Beitin, the large rounded Tell, on the summit of which is the ruined site of Seilfln ; N. of tlie Tell runs the Wady Seilfln, and going down this to the W. he will rejoin the high road at a point 10 miles N. of Beitin, and a little E. of el-Luli/ian, evidently the Lebonah of Jg 21", 3 miles N.N.W. of Seilfln. The most noticeable feature in the natural situation of Seilfln is its seclusion. ' On the E. and N. it is shut in by bare and lofty hills of grey limestone, dotted over with a few li^-trees ; ' only on the S. is it open to- wards the plain just mentioned. The 'Tell on which Seilfln stands is some ISOO ft. in length from N. to S., and 900 ft. from E. to W. ; the Wady on the N. is a deep vallev, in the sides of which are many rock -cut sepulchres; at the head of the valley on the E., about 3 mUe from the Tell, there is a tine spring of water. The site consists of nothing more than ' the ruined houses of a modern village, with here and there fragments of masonry which may date back to Crusading times, especially one sloping scarp.' The vineyards (Jg 2\io. 21) (,f yiiiloli have disappeared ; but the traces of terraces, still visible on the sides of the Tell, show that once it was actively cultivated. Below the top of the hill, on the N. of the ruins, a kind of irregular quadrangle, some 400 ft. from E. to W., and SO ft. from N. to S., has been hewn roughly out of the rock ; it has been conjectured that this was the site of the ancient sanctuary (see below). Leaving the Tell on the S.E., traces of an ancient road, about 10 ft. wide, are visible. At the S.E. foot of the Tell there is a small disused mosque, shaded by a line oak tree ; and, some 500 yds. S.E. of this, a building which seems to have \)een once a synagogue, 37 ft. square, built of good masonry (see further particulars in Guirin, Sainarie, ii. (1S75) 21-23 ; PEt'Mem. ii. 367-370, with a plan of the Tell ; Conder, Tent Wur/c', 44-46).
.Shiloh is mentioned frequently in the earlier history of Israel. It laj' in the territory of Eph- raim, 12 miles S. of Shechem. It was the spot at which, after leaving Gilgal, the ark and tent of meeting were stationed, and where also, according to tradition, Joshua divided the liind by lot be- tween the tribes (Jos 18«- »■ '" J E ; hS' 19" 21- 229- '« P). It continued to be the principal Isr. sanctuary throughout the period of the Judges (cf. Jg 18'' 'all the time that the house of God was in Sliiloh') till the age of Samuel (1 S 1-4). The narrative of Jg 2I''°"--— which, whatever m.ay be the case with some other parts of Jg 19-21, is certainlj- ancient — introduces us to a primitive stage of religious feel- ing and practice in Israel : we hear of ' Jahweh's pilgrimage,' held annually in Shiloh, and of the nuiidens of Shiloh coming out to dance in the choruses (cf. Ex \r,^ 32'") ; the feast, to judge from the terms in which it is spoken of, seems (like that of Shechem, Jg 9") to have been at this time hardly more than a local village fe.stival, though it maj' have already been attended bj' pilgrims from the neighbourliood, and in 1 S 1-2 ajipears to liava develdjicd into an early form of what is called in JE the ' pilgrimage of" Ingathering' (Ex 23'« 34*'), or (1>, P, and later) the ' jiilgrimage of Booths' (cf. Wellli. Hist. 94) t on the imrticular occasion referred to, the Benjamitcs, lajing wait for the women in the vineyanis, captured them, and carried them home as wives. In 1 S 1-4 (cf. 14', 1 K 2-'') Eli and his two sons are priests at Shiloh ; the ark is still there, till it is carried oil' (4"') to be a protection to the Israelites in their battles with the Philis