DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0261
SHILOH.
231
for four centuries fixed at Shiloh, and only after the death of Eli and the loss of the Ark
was the Tabernacle removed to Nob. From that time Shiloh seems to have been completely
forgotten, and appears no more in history. Yet even during the period of its fame its
position seems to have been thought to require special description, and there is no topogra-
phical passage in the Bible which so clearly and distinctly indicates the position of a town
as that which defines the situation of Shiloh. " Behold,"
we read, " there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh yearly,
in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the
east of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, j
and on the south of Lebonah."
In the time of Phinehas—according to the chronology
of Josephus—Shiloh became the scene of an adventure
which recalls the rape of the Sabines, namely, the forcible jjj
provision of wives for the surviving Benjamites. Among 1
the thick leaves of the low vine-bushes the men of M
Benjamin lay hid, as the Israelite damsels, robed in their
holiday attire, marched out to the sound of the timbrel, clapping their hands and dancing,
as the bands of women may still be seen to dance on festive occasions among these wild
mountains. " And the children of Benjamin took them wives according to the number of
th em that danced whom they caught." Possibly the name " Meadow of the Feast," which
231
for four centuries fixed at Shiloh, and only after the death of Eli and the loss of the Ark
was the Tabernacle removed to Nob. From that time Shiloh seems to have been completely
forgotten, and appears no more in history. Yet even during the period of its fame its
position seems to have been thought to require special description, and there is no topogra-
phical passage in the Bible which so clearly and distinctly indicates the position of a town
as that which defines the situation of Shiloh. " Behold,"
we read, " there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh yearly,
in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the
east of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, j
and on the south of Lebonah."
In the time of Phinehas—according to the chronology
of Josephus—Shiloh became the scene of an adventure
which recalls the rape of the Sabines, namely, the forcible jjj
provision of wives for the surviving Benjamites. Among 1
the thick leaves of the low vine-bushes the men of M
Benjamin lay hid, as the Israelite damsels, robed in their
holiday attire, marched out to the sound of the timbrel, clapping their hands and dancing,
as the bands of women may still be seen to dance on festive occasions among these wild
mountains. " And the children of Benjamin took them wives according to the number of
th em that danced whom they caught." Possibly the name " Meadow of the Feast," which