Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions, Vol. 1Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm
Religion
Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions, Vol. 1
Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm
Bible. Old Testament -- Prophecies; Messiah -- Prophecies
In the blessing of Moses, Deut. xxxii. 7, it is said of Judah: "Hear,
Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people; with his hands
he fights for himself, and be Thou an help to him from his enemies."
Even the remarkable brevity of this utterance points back to the
blessing of Jacob. With this brevity, the length of the blessing upon
Levi, who had been treated too summarily by Jacob, forms a striking
contrast. In the case of Reuben also, the attempt to pour oil into the
wounds then inflicted is visible. The whole announcement is based upon
the supposition that Judah is the fore-champion of Israel; and this
supposition refers us back to Gen. xlix. This appears especially in the
words, "Bring him to his people," on which light is thrown only by Gen.
xlix. It is for his people that Judah engages in foreign wars, and the
Lord, fulfilling the words, "From the prey, my son, thou goest up,"
brings him safely to his people.[16]
[Pg 89]
There can be no doubt that in Shiloh, as the name of a place, there is
a reference to Gen. xlix. 10. They who rightly denied that Shiloh
could, in that passage, be understood as the name of the place, could,
nevertheless, not feel satisfied as long as they allowed a twofold
Shiloh to exist unconnected with each other. The agreement in the very
rare and peculiar form, which nowhere else occurs, cannot well be a
matter of accident.
In the Pentateuch, Shiloh does not occur at all as the name of
a place. In the passage where Shiloh is first mentioned--in Josh.
xvi. 6--another name is beside it, and prefixed to it. According to
that passage, the former name was Taanah. (They who are of opinion that
this place was different from Shiloh, can find no support from the
authority of _Eusebius_; it is not said Taanah by Shiloh, but
Taanath-Shiloh.) After that place had become the seat of the Sanctuary,
the holy name _Shiloh_ took the place of the former natural one. The
reason why this name was given to it is indicated in Josh. xviii. 1:
"And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled
together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation
there; _and the land was subdued before them_." Compare also xxi. 44,
xxii. 4, where it is remarked that at that time "the Lord gave them
rest round about." (See _Bachiene_, _Palestina_ ii. 3, S. 409 ff.) In
the subjection of the country,--in the rest which the Lord had given
them from all round about, they saw an earnest of, and a prelude to,
the obedience of the nations in general, and to the state of perfect
rest which should take place at some future time with the appearing of
Shiloh. Victory, peace! (_Siegfried!_) such was the watchword
corresponding to the elevated consciousness of the people. It is an
elevation quite similar to that which we so often perceive in the
Psalms. "Sometimes there rises the hope that the Gentiles shall, at
some future period, be received among the people of God--a hope based
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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