certainly small matters, but they are quite as great as any which can be named anterior to the arrival at Shiloh. Still they are in perfect harmony with the fact that the time for Judah's sceptre and lawgiving had not yet come, as the age of the judges was the pe- riod in which Ephraim was the leading tribe (comf). viii, 1-3; xii, 1-6; Psa. Ixxviii).
The difficulties in the way of adopting this transla- tion are, indeed, so very great that in his commentary Tuch suggested a modification which has met with some little support. He supplies an indefinite subject to the verb — "The sceptre shall not dejiart from Judah . . . as long as [people] come to Shiloh;" that is to say, forever. The objections to this rendering are so over- whelming that we may be sure it never would have been proposed but for the perplexities of those who deny that Shiloh is a person. There is an awkward- ness in supplying this subject, there is an entire misap- prehension of the meaning of the conjunction; and the use of the phrase "as long as people come to Shiloh," in the sense " forever," has no parallel in Scripture, and appears most unnatural when we look at it in the light of history.
2. On the Reference of the Name Shiloh to the Messi- ah.— The old and simple interpretation is that the sov- ereignty in Israel belongs to Judah, and that this pre- rogative shall not be exhausted till the promised Sav- iour comes, who shall bring all the blessings to the highest perfection.
a. Arguments in Favor of this Interpretation. — (L) The name is now generallj' admitted to be an adjective meaning ^^ peaceful," a title most appropriate to our Sav- iour, and confirmed by parallels or imitations to which it will be necessary to refer. It is highly probable that there is a close connection between the name of the person here and that of the place which is mentioned in the other texts in which the word occurs ; and this connection indicates the circumstance by which many have been led to adopt the explanation which we have rejected, owing to its appearance in all the other texts; they felt that the place Shiloh was not to be thrust out of this text without good reason. Now the fact is not that there is here a reference to the place, for all at- tempts to make this intelligible and satisfactory have failed, but that in the place there is a reference to this text. Shiloh was the name given to the place where the ark found a place of rest for itself (or, othervvise, the place which already bore this name was selected as the resting-place of the ark), because it expressed the hope of the people that in tliis place they should find "one greater than the Temple;" Shiloh the place re- minded them continually of this prophecy of Shiloh the jjerson, and kept alive the faith of the people in "him that was to come." Similar to this is the name Jerusalem, "possession of peace," or "foundation of peace," to which tlie ark was afterwards carried as Je- hovah's place of rest forever, which he had desired, and in which the Lord whom they sought should suddenly come to his temple. This reference to the person Shi- loh in the name of the place where the people met with God has a parallel in the history of the most prominent persons after tlie sceptre and the lawgiver actually came to .Judah. For David named his son and suc- cessor Solomon, a name which in Hebrew bears a much closer analogj' to Shiloh than the English reader might suppose, botli being also the same in meaning. David had been restrained from building the Temple because he had shed blood abundantly ; but he gave the name Solomon to him who was to build it, for he was to be " a man of rest," and the Lord was to give " peace and quietness to Lsrael in his days" (1 Chron. xxii, 8, 9). This also illustrates the following words of the prophe- cy, " until the Peaceful One comes, and unto him shall the gathering of the peoples be." The peoples, in the plural, are admitted by almost universal consent to be the heathen nations, attracted by this Peaceful One who gives them rest (see Matt, xi, 28-30 ; xxiii, 87).
SIIILOH
680
SHILOH
This thought comes out more and more beautifully as the precise sigiiitioation of the c/utfieriii(/ of the peo- ples is contciiiplatiil ; wlieilier it be "attachment," or '• trust," or, most siiniily and probably, "lilial obedience," as ill Prov, xxx, 17.
(2.) Those alone who acknowledge Shiloh to be a person bring the blessing of Jacob into harmony with the promises in the patriarchal period. There is dif- ference of opinion, of course, as to the clearness with wliich Clirisl's person was then revealed. But there is no room for doubting that two subjects were brought prominenth' forward — the multiplication of their seed, and the prospect that out of them should come a bless- ing for all the nations of the world. The former sub- ject appears rei)eatedly in this chapter; but the latter is overlooked entirely in the other interpretation, while full justice is done to it in this one. Nay, the line of blessing had been distinctlj' marked out in tlie case of the three successive patriarchs; now, when the third of these saw that blessing expanding over twelve contem- ponn-y patriarchs, it was most natural that Jacob, who had been so anxious to obtain it for himself, should name the one from whom the seed of blessing in the highest sense was to come. And unless we admit that a prerogative is granted to Judah, far different from the narrow concession in time and degree which is made by those who understand Shiloh here to be a place, it will be difficult to discover any ground for the assertion that the chief ruler was to spring from Judah, of whom the Lord had made choice for this place of power and honor (1 Chron. v, 2; xxviii, 4). It is true that some of the best living expositors of the IMessianic interpre- tation do not think that the descent of our Lord from Judah is the notion conveyed in the words "from be- tween his feet." But it is vain to make any difficulty out of this; for, speaking of each of the tribes in suc- cession and one by one as Jacob does, it is imjiossible that he cau mean to make Shiloh belong to any other tribe.