From the days of Jerome to the year 1838 the site of Shiloh remained unknown, when the analogy between the ancient and modern names, together with a single verse in the Book of Judges, enabled a distinguished American traveler[467] to determine its long-lost site. Called by the Arabs Seilûn, he judged it the Arabic rendering of the more euphonious name of Shiloh, and, guided by the minute and accurate description of the location by the elders of Israel, he succeeded in identifying the place. Nothing can be more artless and correct than that remarkable passage, “Behold, there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh yearly, in a place which is 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.”[468] Though destitute of those monuments which have given historic significance to its name, the pleasures of a visit to this celebrated city are to be derived from the recollections of the past rather than from the grandeur of its antiquities. Memorable as the place where the Tabernacle was first permanently set up in Canaan, and where the Ark remained from the days of Joshua till near the close of Eli’s life, it was here the Israelites assembled to divide the land into tribal possessions according to lot.[469] To fulfill a solemn vow, hither the pious Hannah brought her infant Samuel from Ramah to serve in the Tabernacle.[470] As the custodians of the Ark, from here Hophni and Phinehas went forth to the fatal battle of Ebenezer, and here by the wayside the venerable Eli expired when he heard of the capture of that Ark and the death of his sons.[471] Here the son of a mother, overwhelmed with grief at such calamities, received the name of I-chabod, “The glory is departed from Israel.”[471] In a glen to the east of the town was held that feast at which the daughters of Shiloh were dancing when the 200 Benjamites rose suddenly from the encircling vineyards, and, rushing on the unsuspecting damsels, captured each man a bride, whom he bore in triumph to his home.[472] Disguised like a peasant, hither came the wife of Jeroboam from Tirzah to inquire of the Prophet Ahijah concerning the life of her son.[473] Having become the seat of impiety, the city fell under the curse of the Almighty, and, in the words of Jeremiah, it was doomed to its present shapeless and desolate condition: “Go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.”[474]