Joshua 18:1-10

Joshua 18:1-10. Erection of the Tabernacle at Shiloh

1. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel The descendants of Judah and of Joseph had now taken up their respective inheritances, the one in the south, the other in the north of the country. But "the murmuring," it has been remarked, "of the children of Joseph, and the spirit from which it proceeded, gave sad indications of danger in the near future. National disintegration, tribal jealousies, coupled with boastfulness and unwillingness to execute the work given them of God, were only too surely foreboded in the conduct of the children of Joseph. If such troubles were to be averted, it was high time to seek a revival of religion." Dr Edersheim's Israel in Canaan under Joshua and the Judges, p. 94. The camp at Gilgal, therefore, was broken up, and the people removed to Shiloh, which was situated within the territory of Ephraim, Joshua's own tribe.

The whole congregation of the children of Israel. This formula often recurs. Thus in Exodus 16:1 we read, "And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israelcame unto the wilderness of Sin;" and again, Exodus 16:9, "And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel." Sometimes it is more brief, "the congregation of Israel," as in Exodus 12:3, "Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel." Sometimes more briefly still, "the congregation," as in Leviticus 4:15, "And the elders of the congregationshall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock before the Lord." The Greek word here used is the same as that used by our Lord, Matthew 16:18, "Upon this rock I will build My Church." Originally it denoted an assembly of persons called outfrom among others by the voice of a herald, as, at Athens, for the purpose of legislation. It is applied to the Israelites, as being a nation called outby God from the rest of the world, to bear witness to His unity, to preserve His laws, to keep alive the hope of Redemption, and to exhibit the pattern of a people living in righteousness and true godliness. Hence, St Stephen says of Moses, that he was "in the Church(or congregation) in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina" (Acts 7:38); again, David says in Psalms 22:22, quoted in Hebrews 2:12, "I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church(or congregation) will I sing praise unto Thee;" and again he says in Psalms 26:12, "My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregationswill I bless the Lord."

assembled together at Shiloh Few places in respect to situation are described so accurately as Shiloh. In Judges 21:19 it is said to have been situated "on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah." "In agreement with this, the traveller at the present day, going north from Jerusalem, lodges the first night at Beitîn, the ancient Bethel; the next day, at the distance of a few hours, turns aside to the right, in order to visit Seilûn, the Arabic for Shiloh; and then passing through the narrow Wady, which brings him to the main road, leaves el-Lebbân, the Lebonah of Scripture, on the left, as he pursues the -highway" to Nâblus, the ancient Shechem." Smith's Bibl. Dict. It was one of the earliest and most sacred of the Hebrew sanctuaries. "Its selection," observes Dean Stanley, "may partly have arisen from its comparative seclusion, still more from its central situation. The most hallowed spot of that vicinity, Bethel, which might else have been more naturally chosen, was at this time still in the hands of the Canaanites (Judges 1:23-27); and thus, left to choose the encampment of the Sacred Tent, not by old associations, but according to the dictates of convenience, the conquerors fixed on this retired spot in the heart of the country, where the allotment of the territory could be most conveniently made, north, south, east, and west, to the different tribes; and there the Ark remained down to the fatal day when its home was uprooted by the Philistines." S. and P. p. 232. "It was a central point for all Israel, equidistant from north and 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." Tristram's Land of Israel, p. 162. Here (a) "the daughters of Shiloh" were seized by the Benjamites (Judges 21:19-23); here (b) Samuel spent his boyhood in the service of the Lord, and as an attendant upon the aged Eli (1 Samuel 3:19-21); here (c) the wicked conduct of the sons of that pontiff occasioned the loss of the Ark of the Covenant, and Shiloh from that day forward sank into insignificance (1 Samuel 2:17; 1 Samuel 4:12), for the Lord "forsook the tabernacle" there, "the tent that He had pitched among men; He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim" (Psalms 78:60; Psalms 78:67). "Shiloh is a mass of shapeless ruins, scarcely distinguishable from the rugged rocks around them.… No one relic could we trace which in any way pointed to earlier times among all the wasted stone-heaps which crowded the broken terraces. So utterly destroyed is the house of the ark of God, the home of Eli and of Samuel. -Go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My Name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel" (Jeremiah 7:12)." Tristram's Land of Israel, p. 161.

the tabernacle of the congregation i.e. the tabernacle, or, tent of meeting. The phrase has the meaning of a place of or for a fixed meeting. This thought comes out in Exodus 25:22, "there Iwill meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat;" in Exodus 30:6, "before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee;" and especially in Exodus 29:42-43, "This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord; where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee: and there I will meetwith the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory." "Not the gathering of the worshippers only, but the meeting of God with His people, to commune with them, to make Himself known to them, was what the name embodied." See Smith's Bibl. Dict. After the catastrophe when the Ark fell into the hands of the Philistines, the Tabernacle was removed (i) to Nob (1 Samuel 21:1), and (ii) when that place was destroyed by Saul (1 Samuel 22:19), to Gibeon (1 Kings 3:4).

was subdued before them The word rendered "subdued" denotes to "treadunder the feet." Comp. Genesis 1:28, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it;" and Jeremiah 34:16, "But ye turned and polluted My name, and caused every man his servant … to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids." The verse seems to imply that immediately after the conquest of the land, it was the intention of the Israelites to set up the sacred Tent, but that this purpose could not be carried into effect until the tribe, in the midst of which the Lord had intended it to stand, had received its inheritance. See Keil's Commentary.