The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 577

Judges :,;:,iii. 31 ; l Sam. i. 3, !l, 24 ; ii. 14 (John ix. 7) and Shilo:th (Isa. viii. 6), nud kc.), the sense ha,s been explained as meaning intcrl?ret it as qui mittendtts esl (Vnl,,nte, that the leadership of Juda.h over the other Pererms, A Lapide, Grotins) ; a third ~lnSB tribes of Israel should not cease until he <'":me fo Shiloh (R>1bbi Lipmann, Teller, of expositors, connecting it with nSt::i, to be Eichhorn, Bleck, Furst, Tuch, Delitzsch). 5:lfe _or _at rest, view it as a nomcn ap11;llaltt1n, s1gmfymg the Pacificator, the Rcst-o-iver, the But though n";,..;i ~::l!l, and they came to Tranquilliser, the Peace (Luther, '\r enema, Shiloh, e. similar phrase, is found in l Sam. Rosenmuller, Hengstenberg, Keil, Gerlach, iv. 12, yet agai:,ist this i~!erprct.ation may be Murphy, &c.); while a fomth resolve it into urged (1) the 1mprobab1lity of so obscure a locality, whose existence at the time is also 1<, i,i!$, and conjecture it to signify, he to problematical, being mentioned by Jacob, whom it (sc. the sceptre or the kingdom) Z1don, the only other name occurrin& in the belongs, or he whose right it is, as in Ezek. rror,hecy, having been, even before tile days xxi. 27 (LXX., EWG idv ;;,._e,, ra a7rOKEi/JfVa of "a.cob, a city of renown (eh. x. 19) ; and a/mjj; Aquila and Symmachus, i ci:iroKura,; (2) the inaccuracy of the historical statement Onkelos, Syriac, Saad.fas, Targum of J ernsa- which would thus be made, since the su- lem, et alii). It seems indisputable that the premacy of Judah was in no way affected, preponderance of authority is in favour of the and certainly not diminished, by the setting last two interpretations, and if n",•t?' be the up of the tabernacle in Shiloh ; to obviate which objection Kalisch proposes to read ?orre?t rnading, instead of n";,~ (= ii~~ 1? itf~), as the majority of MSS. attest, it = \al 1.1/ as "even if," or "even when," and to understand the prediction as intimating that will be difficult to withhold from the former, even though a new empire should be estab- "the Tranquilliser," the palm of superiority. lished at Shiloh, as was eventually done, The translations of Dathius (quamdiu prolem Judah should not forfeit her royal name and habebit, ei gentes obedient), who professes to rrerogative-only this sense of •~ 1Jl is not follow Gulcher, who understa.nds the words as a prophecy of the perpetuity of Judah's clearly recognisecl by the best grammarians kingdom, fulfilled in David (2 Sam. vii.), and (Gesenius, Furst), and is not successfully of Lange (" until he himself comes home as ~upported hy the passages referred to (eh. the Shiloh or Rest-bringer"), who also dis- xxviii. 15 ; Ps. ex. 1 ; cxii. 8), in every one cerns in Judah a typical foreshadowing of of which the received rendering "until" is the Messiah, may be mentioned as examples distinctly preferable. 2. Re,garding Shiloh of ingenious, but scarcely convincing, expo- as an abstract noun, from i"l~tf to be safe, sition. And nnto him shall the gathering like n";,~ from i1~1, the import of the pro- of the people be. Not '' .,ai aura~ :irpoaoo~ia 10vwv" (LXX.), ipse eril ea:pectatio genlium phecy has been expressed e.s asserting that (Vulgate), with which also agrees the Syriac, the sceptre should not depart from Judah, or "to him nations will flock" (Samaritan), either until he (Judah) should attain to rest avar11µ,a Aawv (Aquila), but to him, i. e. (Hofmann, Kurtz),or nntiltranquillityshould Shiloh, will be not aggregatio pop1ilorum come, i. e. until Judah's enemies should be (Calvin), but the submission or willing obe- subdued (Gesenius), a.n interpretation which dience (a word occurring elsewhere only in Rosen.miiller properly characterises as " la11.- Prov. x:xx. 17) of nations or peoples (Onkelos, guidum et pr:ene frigidum." Hence-3. Be- Targum of Jonathan, Kimchi, Aben Ezra, lieving Shiloh to be the name of a person, the Dathins, Rosen.miiller, Keil, Kalisch, Ger- majority of commentators, both Jewish and lach, Murphy, Tayler Lewis, 'Speaker's Com• Christian, and ancient as well as modern, mentary'). Binding his foal 'llllto tho vine,--;- agree that the Messiah is the person referred i. e. not Shiloh, but Judah. The verb 171;)~ to, and understand Jacob as fore-announcing that the time of his alpearance would not has the archaic ' appended, as in eh. rui. be till the staff of rega power had dropped 39; Deut. xxxiii. 16; Zech. xi. 17-and his from the hands of Judah; only, the widest ass's colt unto the choice vine. 'fhe i"l~j~ possible diversity exists among those who (fem. of p·:i.~) was a nobler kind of vine which discover a Messianic reference in the predic- grew in Syria, with small berries, roundish tion as to the exact'significance of the term and of a dark colour, with soft and hardly Shiloh. Some render it his son, or progeny, perceptible stones (Gesenius, p. 796). •~~ or (great) descendant, from an imaginary is an archaic form of the construct state root, ,~. which, aft~r Chaldee and .Arabic which occlll·s only here. He washed hia analogies, iG supposed 1o mean "offsprm~" garments in wine, and his clothes in the (Targum of Jonathau, Ki.mchi, Calvm, blood of grapes. 'fhe word nio is a .A.iruwo1th, and others); othel's, d~riving it /17ra[ ~Eyoµ,u,ov, and is either put !Jy nphm- froUl n~~, to send, compare it with Siloam resis for n~c:,::,, which occurs in the Saw11.ritan OH. XLIX, 1-33.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 527