Temple of the Ark, Shiloh

‎Leaving Shechem, the Nazareth party would pass by Jacob’s Well and in sight of Joseph’s Tomb. Another day’s journey would bring them to Seilûn—the Shiloh of the Scriptures, and probably the site of the first temple to Jehovah, the home of the Ark of the Covenant. Shiloh is used also as one of the names of the Messiah, as in Genesis 49:10, and means the Savior and the tranquility of peace from Him. It is written of this place: “But go ye now unto my place in Shiloh where I set my name at the first.”—Jeremiah 7:12. Here Eli lived, and Hannah prayed and was answered, and here Samuel served and was called to the priesthood. Here the holy oil burned before the ark “ere the lamps of God went out in the temple of the Lord,” and the ark, captured by the Philistines, came no more to Shiloh. If you approach it through the Valley of Ain El Haramyeh you follow the path skirting the east slope till it reaches the top of the pass, where a glimpse of Mt. Hermon is caught in the distance, and the green basin of El Lubbôn (Lebonah of Scripture). Below, at the gushing fountain of Lubbôn, you leave the direct road to Bethel to make a detour to “Shiloh, on the side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.”—Judges 21:19. Here is an oblong hill on which has been cut a level court seventy-seven feet wide by 412 feet long. The rock has been cut at the edges to join the terrace, and cisterns are found along the side. May not this have been the plateau proposed as the site for the tabernacle, which, according to tradition, was “a structure of low stone walls with a tent drawn over the top”? At any rate, says Maj. Wilson, there is no other level spot on the “tell” large enough to receive a tent of the dimensions of the tabernacle.