Shiloh
A town in the hill country of Ephraim where the tent of meeting and the ark stood before the monarchy. Samuel grew up at its sanctuary. Later writers remembered its fate as a warning to Jerusalem.
Shiloh lay in the hill country of Ephraim. Judges places it north of Bethel, east of the road from Bethel to Shechem (Judges 21:19), and the site is identified with Khirbet Seilun. Joshua says that Israel set up the tent of meeting there once the land was subdued (Joshua 18:1). In the time of Eli it was the sanctuary where the ark was kept and where families such as Samuel’s came each year to sacrifice (1 Samuel 1:3) (1 Samuel 3:3). The ark was taken from it to the battle in which the Philistines captured it (1 Samuel 4:3–11).
Psalm 78 says that God “abandoned the tent of Shiloh” (Psalm 78:60), and Jeremiah told those who trusted in the Jerusalem temple to go and see what had been done to Shiloh (Jeremiah 7:12–14).
What happened here
- about 1070 BC, traditional dateSamuel and the Loss of the Ark
Samuel is called as a boy at the shrine of Shiloh. The Philistines defeat Israel, capture the ark of the covenant and kill the sons of the priest Eli, then send the ark back after seven months. Samuel leads Israel as prophet and judge.