SHILOH  , a

town of Ephraim, where the sanctuary of the ark was, under the priesthood of the house of Eli . According to r Sam. iii . 3, 15, this sanctuary was not a tabernacle but a temple, with doors . But the priestly narrator of Josh. xviii. r has it that the tabernacle was set up there by Joshua after the conquest . In Judges xxi . 19 seq. the yearly feast at Shiloh appears as of merely local character . The sanctuary at Shiloh seems to have been destroyed, probably by the Philistines after the battle of Ebenezer; cf . Jeremiah vii . 12 seq . The position described in Judges, loc. cit., gives certainty to the identification with the modern Seilun lying some 2 m . E.S.E. of Khan Labban (Lebonah), on the road from Bethel to Shechem . Here there is a ruined village, on an elevation protected by lofty hills on three sides, and open only towards the south, offering a strong position, which suggests that the place was a stronghold as well as a sanctuary .

Fertile

land surrounds the hill . The name Seilun corresponds to Eekovv in Josephus . LXX. has Er7Xw, E17kcola . The forms given in the Hebrew Bible (n5,v, 15'v) have dropped the final consonant, which reappears in the adjective 'nn5'v .