Joshua 18:1

THE TABERNACLE ERECTED AT SHILOH, Joshua 18:1.

The location of the tribes was not yet completed, but it had proceeded so far that it was desirable that the tabernacle should be permanently established in a central place. This could not well be accomplished till Ephraim, in whose borders it was to be located, had received his portion.

1. Shiloh Rest; the first national capital and sanctuary in Palestine. Bethel, “the house of God,” from its sacred name and associations, would probably have been selected if it had not been in the hands of the Canaanites. Shiloh, now Seilun, remarkable for its seclusion, not for its natural strength or beauty, is situated near the central thoroughfare of Palestine, twenty miles north of Jerusalem and ten south of Nablus. [Tristram describes the modern site as “a mass of shapeless ruins, scarcely distinguishable from the rugged rocks around them, with large hewn stones occasionally marking the site of ancient walls. There is one square ruin, probably a mediaeval fortress-church, with a few broken Corinthian columns, the relics of previous grandeur. Straggling valleys, too open to be termed glens, within an amphitheatre of dreary round-topped hills, bare and rocky, without being picturesque, are the only characteristics of this featureless scene.” This same writer thus discusses the question why so unattractive a spot as Shiloh should have been chosen as the religious centre of Israel for so many generations: “One reason may probably be found in this very natural unattractiveness, inasmuch as it was a protest against the idolatry of the people of the land, which selected every high hill and every noble grove as the special home of their gods; here being neither commanding peak nor majestic cedar, neither deep glen nor gushing fountain. Moreover, it was a central point for all Israel, equidistant from north to south, easily accessible to the trans-Jordanic tribes, and in the heart of that hill-country which Joshua first subdued, and which remained to the end of Israel’s history the district least exposed to the attacks of Canaanitish or foreign invaders.”] Here the remaining seven tribes received their allotments, here the yearly feasts were held, and here the ark remained more than three hundred and fifty years, till taken by the Philistines. 1 Samuel 4:1-11. The place was afterwards forsaken and accursed of God. Psalms 78:60; Jeremiah 7:12-14; Jeremiah 26:6.

Tabernacle This was, according to the rabbinical representation, still a tent, or, rather, a low structure of stones with a tent drawn over it. “Although a city grew round it, and a stone gateway rose in front of it, yet it still retained its name ‘ camp of Shiloh’ and the ‘tent that God had pitched among men.’” Stanley. Its structure is described in Exodus 25:26.