Texts in Conversation
Joshua is described setting up the tabernacle at Shiloh, Israel's first holy place. Jeremiah later points to Shiloh’s ruins to warn Jerusalem that God destroyed that sanctuary once and will do the same to the temple if the people keep sinning.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Joshua 18:1
Hebrew Bible
1 The entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh and there they set up the tent of meeting. Though they had subdued the land, 2 seven Israelite tribes had not been assigned their allotted land. 3 So Joshua said to the Israelites: “How long do you intend to put off occupying the land the Lord God of your ancestors has given you?
Jeremiah 7:12
Hebrew Bible
11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own is to be a hideout for robbers? You had better take note! I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord. 12 So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped in the early days. See what I did to it because of the wicked things my people Israel did. 13 You also have done all these things, says the Lord, and I have spoken to you over and over again. But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent! 14 So I will destroy this temple that I have claimed as my own, this temple that you are trusting to protect you. I will destroy this place that I gave to you and your ancestors, just like I destroyed Shiloh.
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Notes and References
... I read the poem as making a sharp distinction between the destiny of the Shiloh sanctuary and the destiny of the Jerusalem Temple. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:12-14; 26:6, 9) used Shiloh as an example of what would happen to a legitimate sanctuary if the people sinned. He equated the sanctuary at Shiloh with the Temple in Jerusalem because he wanted to equate the fate of Shiloh with the fate of the Jerusalem Temple. The equation is explicit in the wording of Jeremiah 7:12: 'my place that is in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at first' — note the application to Shiloh of the Deuteronomic phrase designating the Temple. But our psalmist does not want to equate the Jerusalem Temple with the Shiloh sanctuary, because to do so in the post-destruction era would remove all hope of its restoration. The sanctuary at Shiloh, after all, was long gone, never to rise again. ...
Berlin, Adele
"Psalms and the Literature of Exile" in Flint, Peter W.; Miller, Patrick D. (ed.) Psalms and the Literature of Exile
(pp. 78-79) Brill, 2005
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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