_The benediction upon Judah_ (v. 10) stands unrivaled in importance and is not without difficulty. The main question is whether the word “Shiloh” signifies the Messiah, in the special sense of the Peace-giving One; or refers to the city of that name in Canaan. If it refers to the Messiah, the sense, the application and the fulfillment of the passage are facile and truly rich――thus: Judah shall head the tribes and give them kings until the Great Messiah shall come: then all the nations (Gentile and Jew) shall obey him――obedience rather than “gathering” being the best established sense of the word. It occurs elsewhere only in Prov. 30: 17. No facts of Jewish history are better known than these――that Judah led the march through the wilderness, and that from David to Christ the scepter was in Judah――until the Messiah came, when it dropped from his hand. “We have a law,” (said the Jewish Sanhedrim in the age of Christ) “and by our law he ought to die”――_i. e._ for blasphemy. But under their law, capital punishment was by stoning (Lev. 24: 15, 16, and Mat. 26: 65, 66, and Jno. 19: 7). Having lost the power of life and death over criminals, they were compelled to take the case to the Roman authorities. _Their_ mode of capital punishment was crucifixion. Thus the “cross” stands through all the ages to prove that the scepter had departed from Judah and that the Messiah had come.――――But he came not only to die but to reign, and the nations of the wide earth are to bow to his scepter.――――Such is the construction of this passage, provided the term “Shiloh” refers to the Messiah. That it does refer to him may be argued on two grounds: (a.) This construction is facile, natural, and supported by analogous prophecies; (b.) The other which makes Shiloh the name of a town in Canaan, labors under serious, not to say insurmountable difficulties. (a.) “Shiloh” is derived readily from the verb Shalah,[26] kindred with Shalam, both words being in frequent use in the sense of being at peace and in rest; expressing good wishes for peace――_i. e._ for all prosperity――the noun from which might naturally mean the author of peace, as we see in Mic. 5: 4. Furthermore, this distinctive feature of the Messiah’s character and mission is the theme of Ps. 72 and of many passages in Isaiah, _e. g._ 9: 6, 7, and 11: 1–10, and 60: 18–22. These prophecies naturally follow the lead of this and therefore sustain the construction here given it.