(1.) There is no evidence of the existence of the city Shiloh in the time of Jacob, or, if it did exist, it was not improbably known by some other name; for we shall have occasion to suggest that the name of the cit}' was derived from this prophecy. Nay, granting that, it existed under the name of Shiloh. it is a gratuitous assertion that .lacob spoke to his sons of a ])lacc so en- tirely unimportant, with which we have no reason to think that he or they ever had any connection. In this respect it stands entirely on a different footing from the city Shechem, to which there is thought to be a reference in Gen. xlviii, 22.
(2.) There is something which requires to be ox- plained in the expression " until he come to Shiloh."
SHILOH
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SHILOH
Supposing it to refer to the place to which the taber- nacle was brought by Joshua, what had Juduh to do with this " coming to Shiloh" more than the other tribes, " Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing con- cerning priesthood?" At the very least, it suggests a grave doubt whether Judah really was meant to be the subject of tlie verb; the more so that it would have been extremeh- easy to write the sentence so as to leave no room for doubt as to the grammatical con- struction.
(3.) A violent surprise is given to us by this limita- tion of Jiidab's lead or rule to the time anterior to his coming to Shiloh. The prophecy of Jacob was in ref- erence to things which should befaD them in the last days (Gen. xlix, 1). Whether we incline to a definite or to an indefinite interpretation of this phrase, it is much at variance with a prophecy of Judah's suprem- acy for forty -five or fifty years, from tlie Exode till the coming of the tribes to Shiloh ; of which period thirtj'-eight years were spent in a state of suspension from the favor of God, so far as this was manifested by church privileges. Was this all the pre-eminent bless- ing of Judah '? Was a sudden termination to be put to the triumphal progress, "conquering and to con- quer," which we anticipated as we read ver. 8, 9? Or, at least, must a veil be thrown over what remained of it subsequent to the arrival at Shiloh '?
(4.) So we come to the question. Does this i^iterpre- tation harmonize in any way with the facts of the case? Delitzsch is well aware that, on this interpre- tation, the prophecy implies, first, that Judah had " the sceptre and the lawgiver" till it came to Shiloh, and, secondly, that this coming to Shiloh was a turning- point in its history; and it is incomprehensible to us how he persuades himself into affirming these two propositions. As to the former, we have not space for discussing the varieties of translation proposed; but, for the sake of argument, let us concede as much as possible in the way of cutting down and restricting the meaning of these terms. So far as we are aware, the pre-eminence was assigned to Judah only in one re- spect, during the march through the wilderness — that it took the first place among the tribes in the order of marching (Numb, ii and x); unless we add that the same order was observed in the consecration-offerings at the tabernacle (ch. vii). But in this we see no more than a very limited amount of honor ; wliile the power and authority .were first in the hands of Moses and Aaron the Levites, and next in those of Joshua the Ephraimite. Let any one compare the dying blessing of Moses with this blessing of .Jacob, and see how brief is the notice of Judah (a tribe certainlj^ the most nu- merous, but not possessed of any other practical advan- tage), and how full are the blessings pronounced upon Levi and Jose|)h. We do not either deny or under- value the honor of the position assigned to Judah; but we say it was of little value unless taken in connection with this prophecy and regarded as a prognostic or a pledge of its fulfilment in due time, or, at most, a prel- ude to it and a preparation for it. The proper fulfil- ment began in David's time; and " the sceptre and the lawgiver" are to be sought for in his line, to which the promises were made of an unending dominion. But before David came to hold the sceptre, the city Shiloh had ceased to be the religious centre of the people of Israel, and its mention m this prophecy would be in- explicable. As to the second proposition involved in this interpretation, there is not even a shadow of evi- dence that the coming to Shiloh was a turning-point in the relations of the tribe of Judah eitlier to the oth- er tribes or to the heathen. Whatever primacy Judah had enjoyed already, one may plausibly assert that it continued to enjoy, it was tlie first to be sent to the wars after Joshua's death, yet alone and not command- ing the others (Judg. i, 1, 2) ; it was sent foremost into the battle in the civil war with Benjamin (xx, 18), and it furnished the first of the judges (_iii, 9). These are