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Shiloh - location profile

Location and Setting 

• Shiloh was located in a valley just east of the main Ridge Road (the "Patriarch’s Highway"). Scripture places it "north of Bethel, on the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah" (Judg 21:19).
• The site of Shiloh has been identified as modern Seilun, a scene of ruins about eight miles north of Bethel.
• Recent research has established that Shiloh was located in a place that would have possessed extraordinary acoustical properties. This configuration of the landscape would have facilitated communication by the priests when the people came to sacrifice.

Historical and Biblical Significance

• At the time of the Conquest, Shiloh emerged as an informal administrative center. Here the seven last tribes to be assigned territories cast lots to determine where they would settle. Its central location provided easy access from north and south. Its topography was suitable for assemblies, providing the acoustics necessary to communicate with large numbers of people. It is possible that these factors also accounted for its becoming the first permanent place of Israel’s worship in the Land.
• Joshua set up the tent of meeting at Shiloh in the early days of the Conquest (Josh 18:1). It continued as the center of worship during the period of the Judges (Judg 18:31). By the time of Eli and his sons, the tent of Joshua’s day had been replaced by a more permanent structure, a kind of "temple" (Hebrew hekal), with a door and doorposts (1 Sam 1:9).
• It was to Shiloh that Hannah, the mother of Samuel, came to worship and to pray for a child. God answered her prayer and some three years later, she brought her son to Shiloh to give him to God. Here he grew up in the conflicting environment of Israel’s worship and the avarice and immorality of Eli’s sons.
• The ark resided at Shiloh. When Israel had lost the first battle with the Philistines at Aphek on the International Coastal Highway, they sent messengers to take the ark down the Wadi Shiloh to Ebenezer, near Aphek. They believed that this "presence of God" would ensure victory. They were defeated, however, by an enemy invigorated by fear of being annihilated by the powerful God of Israel, whom they assumed was in "the box." Israel lost the ark to the Philistines, who took it to three of their cities before returning it to Israel at Beth-shemesh (1 Samuel 4).
• Apparently the Philistines destroyed Shiloh because the ark was not returned there and Shiloh was never again regarded as a center of worship (Ps 78:60).

Bibliography

1. Andersen, H.G. "Shiloh" The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. Ed. Merrill C. Tenney. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976.
2. Bimson, John J., ed. Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Places. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1995.
3. Lockyer, Sr., Herbert, ed. Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986.
4. Smith, William. The New Smith's Bible Dictionary. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1966.
5. Taylor, J.B. "Shiloh" The New Bible Dictionary. 2^nd ed. Ed. J.D. Douglas. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1982.