Until Shiloh Comes and to Him is Obedience
Shiloh is a mysterious figure in the Scripture. Little is known who he is, since he is mentioned only once in Gen 49:10, when the patriarch Ya’akov (Jacob) gave his prophetic visions of the twelves tribes. It is evident in the vision concerning Yehudah (Judah) that the coming of Shiloh is not to be regarded as terminating the rule of this tribe, but that the figure of Shiloh is carried out still further beyond the literal terms of the prophecy, as it tells “until Shiloh comes, and to Him is the obedience of peoples”. The King Messiah (Anointed King) is destined to arise out of Israel, restore the kingdom of David, and the Torah observance to the fullest extent. Some are awaiting Him to come; others to return, but we should not be surprised if we all are awaiting the same person — Shiloh.
The Promised Prophet like Mosheh
Hundreds of years after the Patriarch Ya’akov, our teacher Mosheh (Moses) gave the twelve tribes the not less prophetic promise for another person that would arise from Yehudah — the prophet like him.
Yehovah your Elohim shall raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brothers. Listen to Him, according to all you asked of Yehovah your Elohim in Horev in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of Yehovah my Elohim, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’ (Deu 18:15-16)
The Rabbis interpret it that this promise neither relates to one particular prophet, i.e. the prophet, nor to the Messiah, but that Mosheh bade Israel to expect a prophet. The proof-text they found in what follows with reference to the false prophets, thus they presuppose the rise of prophets, and that it is not the Messiah exclusively, who is promised here. The argument is that the text explicitly says, “a prophet”, as referring to any prophet, not “the prophet”, as referring to a specific prophet. And the words “from your midst, from your brothers” imply that there would be no necessity for the Jews to turn to heathen soothsayers or prophets, but that the Lord would provide men within Israel who would make known His words. According to the Rabbis, this promise of YHVH by no means refers to a specific prophet that Moses is speaking of, but that at any time when the people needed a mediator with Him, He would send a prophet.
The promised prophet was to resemble Mosheh in the respect of acting as mediator between YHVH and the people by making known His words and will. Consequently the meaning of “like me” was not that the future prophet would resemble Mosheh in all respect, because if the future prophet be the precise means of communication of YHVH, i.e. speaking with him “mouth to mouth and face to face”, that would make him a copy of Mosheh, but on the contrary, the words which follow in verse 18, “I will put My words in his mouth” suggest that that prophet would relate the words of YHVH to the people, as if YHVH had spoken them. In other words, the promised prophet would be His messenger to the people, since a messenger is allowed to speak only the words he is told to speak.
For the Rabbis to say that the prophet Mosheh is speaking of here, is not the Messiah but any prophet, is to set limitations of the word “prophet”. And since the expectation of the Seed of the woman and Ya’akov’s prophecy concerning Shiloh, were very well known to Mosheh, we can be more than certain that the promise Mosheh made to Israel referred to not any prophet but a specific prophet, and more particularly to the Seed of the woman in Gen 3:15.
And I put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His heel. (Gen 3:15)
Secondly, the comparison between the words “like me” when Mosheh spoke to the people and “like you” which YHVH spoke to him concerning the will of the people to have a mediator, affirms that the future prophet would be as perfectly equal to his calling as Mosheh was to his. Yet, he would have something that would distinguish him from Mosheh, namely he would speak the words YHVH would put in his mouth.
Now, we may ask of the difference between the expressions “I spoke with him mouth to mouth and face to face” and “I will put My words in his mouth”, because they seem interchangeable. The expression “I spoke with him mouth to mouth and face to face” suggests that YHVH spoke to Mosheh and then Mosheh related to the people everything he heard from Him. The role of the mediator also suggests that Mosheh related the words of the people to YHVH. We should note that after the Mount Sinai Revelation when the people were terrified by YHVH’s presence, He never again spoke directly to the people; Mosheh took the role of the mediator between YHVH and Israel.
On the other hand, the expression “I will put My words in his mouth” referring to the promised prophet suggests that he is the direct speaker to the people and whatever words YHVH has put in his mouth, the prophet speaks. Or, we may say that he is a mediator of the highest level and carries his mediation in the manner and power higher of that of Mosheh. So, the role of this prophet is to speak with the authority Mosheh did not have. In other words, YHVH has given the prophet the authority to be His direct representative to act and speak, as YHVH would if He had to speak again directly to the people.
With that being said, the point we made was that the omitting of the article “the” in verse 15 proves or disproves nothing, because the overall context of Deuteronomy 18, which we discussed above, speaks of none other than the coming of the promised Seed of the woman is the same promised prophet Mosheh told us to await.
Who is Shiloh?
The scepter shall not turn aside from Yehudah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to Him is the obedience of peoples. (Gen 49:10)
The Hebrew word shiloh means tranquility, in the sense of rest, or place of rest. But with this meaning shiloh has no reference as a noun in the Scripture, since it appears only here in the prophecy of Ya’akov. Therefore, we may say that we do not have sufficient information to render it as such, as there is also uncertainty with the grammatical interpretation of the word.
On the other hand, the Hebrew word shiloh is related to the word shalom, which means “peace” but more literally, “completeness” and “wellbeing”. For the complete meaning of shalom, the reader may refer to the article “The Blessing of Psalm 122:6 and the Jerusalem Covenant“. For this reason, renderings of shiloh like “till rest comes”, as some commentators suggest, is grammatically impossible. And since this is the only place where shiloh appears. it is hard to derive its true meaning, but judging by the context of the prophecy, it appears to be a proper name.
An alternative spelling of shiloh is shilo and with this spelling it refers to a city belonging to the tribe of Ephraim, where the tabernacle once stood under Yehoshua (Joshua). Therefore, it could be maintained that because Shiloh is used only in Gen 49:10 and Shilo was the name of a city, Shiloh could have no other signification but a proper name. We derive this conclusion from the fact that there were in the Scripture other names of cities that were also names of persons. So, it is reasonable to suggest that Shiloh might also be a personal name of a man, or a bearer of rest or tranquility. We may regard Shiloh, therefore, as a name or title of the one who is related to the tribe of Yehudah, although the text does not explicitly say that Shiloh will come out from the tribe of Yehudah, but there is a perfect agreement as to the fact that the patriarch is here proclaiming the coming of the one who will perfect in his appearance this tribe and Israel as a whole.
There is another place where we see Shiloh, although not explicitly named.
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not nigh; there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall arise out of Israel, and shall smite through the corners of Moab, and break down all the sons of tumult. (Num 24:17)
The prophecy commences with a picture from “the end of the days”, which rises up as a vision before the eyes of the seer Bi’lam sees but not now. And indeed, there could be no doubt that the rising star represents the appearance of a glorious king, as the parallel “a scepter shall arise out of Israel” indicates it. That the prophetic vision in Numbers is the same as the Ya’akov’s blessing in Genesis is more than obvious as the scepter is a symbol of dominion and kingship used here as the figurative representation the future king of Israel — the king who at his appearance will defeat all the enemies of Israel. So, who is Shiloh?
The School of Rabbi Shila said referring to the Messiah: “His name is Shiloh, for it is written, until Shiloh comes”. Fourteenth century scholar Rabbi Ya’akov ben Asher, known as the Baal Haturim, reveals a hidden connection between the words Shiloh and Mashiach. According to gematria, in which every Hebrew letter corresponds to a number, letter aleph is 1, bet is 2, etc., if the numerical values of words and phrases match, they are connected or have the same weight. In the case of Shiloh, the numerical value of the phrase yavo shiloh, “Shiloh comes”, is 358 which is exactly the same value as the word Mashiach or Messiah. Thus, the patriarch blessed his son not only with royal scepter, but also with the coming of the Messiah through his lineage.
Yeshua, Shiloh and the Bible Code
“The Bible code is the signet of the Omniscient with which He has sealed His word”. Navah
What is the purpose of the Bible code? The purpose of the Bible code is to assert genuineness visible when read at certain conditions. As a genuine banknote can be recognized only by the watermark or other hidden marks indicated through a symbol, letter, or sign in it embedded by its issuer, i.e., the Central bank, and visible when the note is held up to the light, so does the Bible code serve as a “watermark” of genuineness of the Creator’s Word and as verified authenticity. A second purpose of the Bible code is to give a hidden message of wisdom and knowledge, as Psalm 119 states, “Open my eyes, that I may see the hidden things in Your Torah” (Psa 119:18).
And if according to the gematria Shiloh and the Messiah are connected, is there any proof in the Scripture to support it? As a matter of fact, there is, and it comes in the most convincing way — the Bible code.
The Hebrew name Yeshua ישׁוע is pronounced in Aramaic as “Yeshu” or “Ishu” (depending on the Aramaic dialect; in Aramaic the final letter AYIN is silent). If one wanted to transliterate the Aramaic pronunciation of “Yeshua” into Hebrew letters, then one would do so by dropping the AYIN as ישׁו Yeshu. Why Yeshu?
The original followers of Yeshua may have seen in these three letters (on both sides of the word שילה Shiloh) an acronym taken from the first letters of a series of words of a Messianic prophecy in Genesis 49:10. The Hebrew of Genesis 19:10 reads,
לֹא־יָסוּר שֵׁבֶט מִיהוּדָה וּמְחֹקֵק מִבֵּין רַגְלָיו עַד כִּי־יָבֹא שִׁילֹה וְלוֹ יִקְּהַת עַמִּים׃
And the translation reads literally,
The scepter shall not depart from Yehudah, nor the ruler’s staff [also “lawgiver”] from between his feet; So that tribute shall come to him and the homage of peoples be his. Genesis 49:10
The Hebrew word for “tribute” in this verse is Shiloh. There is a hidden gematrical connection between Shiloh and the Hebrew word for Mashiach, as we showed above. With prophetic foresight, Jacob blesses his son Yehudah not only with monarchy but with the eventual emergence of the Messiah through his lineage.
In the Bible code in verse 10 we read: The first letters of the words on both sides of the word Shiloh שִׁילֹה (in blue) spell out Yeshu (in red). With that said, we are coming to the next point in our study.
The Messianic expectations in Judaism
For at least three millennia, the Messianic expectation has been an integral part to Judaism, as we even see it in the first century Judea when Yeshua was asked on different occasions whether He was the prophet Mosheh promised to come. In Judaism, the Messiah was understood to have existed with the beginning of creation and to have a transcendent nature. The Rabbis have understood that the very words, “And the ruach of Elohim hovered upon the face of the waters”. This we discussed in the article “The Transcendent Son Who has been Hidden in Elohim” and elsewhere.
While the Messiah’s task is to bring about the end of history, some Jewish sources argue that the Messiah existed before history as well. In Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, an eighth-century midrashic work, the Messiah’s name is listed among seven things created before the world was created: The Torah, Gehinnom, the Garden of Eden, the Throne of Glory, the Temple, Repentance, and the Name of the Messiah., as it is said Because it is said, “YHVH possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old” (Pro 8:22). “Of old” means before the world was created.
Certainly, the Scripture not only foretells the coming of the Messiah, but also his identity. And if we are equipped with the information that comes from the depth of the Word of YHVH to have wisdom, knowledge and understanding, it requires every Torah Observant Jew and non-Jew to accept the truth and follow the Messiah, as the Rabbis of blessed memory did, as we discussed this in the article “Revealing the Name of Yeshua secretly guarded by the Rabbis“. Thus, the identifying the Messiah should be paramount to anyone who wants to be called a child of YHVH. Midrash Rabbah (Bamidbar Rabbah 11:2) tells, “Like Mosheh, the Messiah will be revealed, then hidden, then revealed again”. Likewise, we say, “Like Yoseph, the Messiah was revealed, rejected, then hidden, then revealed again”. Amein!
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May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days!
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