“A lion’s whelp is Judah,
Ravaging the young of the suckling ewes.”
Is this couplet related to Nathan’s parable of the rich man taking away the poor man’s one little ewe lamb which smote the conscience of David?
“The staff shall not depart from Judah,
Nor the rod from between his feet
Until Shiloh come.”
Is this merely a device of the Ephraimite rebels, Jeroboamites, pretending to find in a patriarchal prophecy a prediction that Judah is to be superseded by the descendants of Joseph (on whom Jacob’s encomiums and blessings are unstinted)? Shiloh was always their headquarters.
It is probable, however, that there is here a play upon words. The words “Until Shiloh come” are rendered by some scholars “Till he (Judah) come to Shiloh,” and interpreted as meaning “Till he come to rest.” The Samaritan version (”donec veniat Pacificus”) seems to identify Shiloh with Solomon. (Colenso, Pent. iii. p. 127.) But this is transparently Shelah over again. Shelomoh (Solomon), Shelah, and Shiloh are substantially of the same etymological significance. It will be observed that in Gen. xxxviii. Shelah is the only person whose character is not blackened. The Ephraimic poem, the “Blessings of Jacob,”—each blessing a vaticinium ex evento,—could well afford a half-disguised compliment to Solomon who had made no attempt to suppress the rebels of Shiloh,—the city of Abijah, who originated the Jeroboamic revolution which divided the Davidic kingdom. Jacob’s blessing on Joseph is of course a blessing on Ephraim: it closes with a transfer of the crown (from Judah) to “him that is a prince among his brethren.” This is “rest” from the arrows of David, this is the coming of Shiloh; it occurred under the reign of the Prince of Peace, Solomon, and it could not be undone by Solomon’s son Rehoboam.
[1] The Bible, the Church, and the Reason, p. 137, n. Dr. Briggs points out citations from the book of Jasher in Num. xxi., Jos. x., and 2 Sam. 1, where a dirge of David is given, and adds: “The book of Jasher containing poems of David and Solomon could not have been written before Solomon.” The bearing of this on the age of the Hexateuch, in its present form, is obvious.