Where was Shiloh?

Question

Where was Shiloh?

Accepted Answer

Shiloh lay in the hill country of Ephraim at Khirbet Seilun, in today's West Bank, about 30 km north of Jerusalem in a straight line, 15 km north of Bethel and about 18 km south of Shechem. The identification is secure: Judges places Shiloh north of Bethel, east of the highway from Bethel to Shechem and south of Lebonah, and the ruin fits. After the conquest "the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there", and Joshua cast lots there for the remaining tribes. Elkanah and Hannah came up to worship when Eli and his sons were priests, Hannah brought the child Samuel to the house of the LORD, and "the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh". The ark was carried from Shiloh into battle against the Philistines and captured, and Eli died at the news. Jeremiah later warned Jerusalem with its fate: "go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh". A Danish expedition dug here in 1926–1932 and Israel Finkelstein in 1981–1984. In the Middle Bronze Age Shiloh was a walled town; a dump of offering vessels from the Late Bronze Age suggests a sanctuary before Israel's time. Israelite pillared buildings with storage jars were burnt in a destruction that radiocarbon dates to the second half of the eleventh century BC; many link it to the Philistine victory, but the Bible does not describe Shiloh's fall. Eusebius placed the village twelve miles from Neapolis, and Byzantine churches with mosaic floors have been uncovered there.