Joshua 18:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Joshua 18:1
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.
a stated assemblage (specifically · noun, common feminine singular construct
children
בְּנֵֽיbe.nei-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵל֙Yis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
together
וַיִּקָּ֨הֲל֜וּvai.yi.Ka.ha.Lu
H6950
to convoke · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Shiloh
שִׁלֹ֔הshi.Loh
H7887
Shiloh · proper noun, a place name
up
וַיַּשְׁכִּ֥ינוּvai.yash.Ki.nu
H7931
to reside or permanently stay (literally or figurativel… · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
tabernacle
אֹ֣הֶל'O.hel
H168
a tent (as clearly conspicuous from a distance) · noun, common masculine singular construct
congregation
מוֹעֵ֑דmo.'Ed
H4150
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
land
וְהָאָ֥רֶץve.ha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · conjunction + definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
subdued
נִכְבְּשָׁ֖הnikh.be.Shah
H3533
to tread down · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
before
לִפְנֵיהֶֽםlif.nei.Hem
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Joshua 19:51 These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children…
Joshua 21:2 And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, wit…
1 Samuel 1:3 And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni an…
Joshua 22:9 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of…
Jeremiah 26:6 Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.
Judges 18:31 And they set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.
1 Samuel 1:24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him un…
1 Samuel 4:3-4 And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Le…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joshua 18:1
In the midst of the story of the dividing of the land comes in this account of the setting up of the tabernacle, which had hitherto continued in its old place in the centre of their camp; but now that three of the four squadrons that used to surround it in the wilderness were broken and diminished, those of Judah, Ephraim, and Reuben, by the removal of those tribes to their respective possessions, and that of Dan only remained entire, it was time to think of removing the tabernacle itself into a city. Many a time the priests and Levites had taken it down, carried it, and set it up again in the wilderness, according to the directions given them (Num 4:5, etc.); but now they must do it for goo…
Israel assembled together at Shiloh - This appears to have been a considerable town about fifteen miles from Jerusalem, in the tribe of Ephraim, and nearly in the center of the whole land. To this place both the camp of Israel, and the ark of the Lord, were removed from Gilgal, after a residence there of seven years. Here the tabernacle remained one hundred and thirty years, as is generally supposed, being the most conveniently situated for access to the different tribes, and for safety, the Israelites having possession of the land on all sides; for it is here added, the land was subdued before them - the Canaanites were so completely subdued, that there was no longer any general resistance…
And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh,.... The whole body of the people, men, women, and children, as well as the camp, Joshua 18:9; at least all that had not received their inheritances in the land. Hither they came from Gilgal, where the camp and tabernacle had been ever since their passage over Jordan; but now the land being in the main subdued, that was too far off both for the camp and tabernacle, and therefore they moved further into the land, and nearer Jerusalem, where in time the tabernacle was to be placed. The place they assembled at, Shiloh, was in the tribe of Ephraim, of which tribe Joshua was, and whose lot and inheritance was now fi…
The Church Fathers
For surely the waves of the deep, brackish and turbulent sea can signify both the sins among which the reprobate are lost in this life when they delight in evil and also the pit of the future perdition, when at the last judgment they will be sent with the devil into eternal fire.We should not forget that when the tabernacle was built on Mount Sinai it had the Red Sea to its west, and when it was brought into the land of promise and set up at Shiloh by Joshua it had the Great Sea in the same direction. Mystically, therefore, we can understand by this that the saints who serve the Lord in this life and make a tabernacle for him in their hearts despise the proud boasting of the impious, confidently mindful that it is soon to pass away: when they are established with the Lord in the future homeland, they shall look at the perpetual punishment of the impious without any interruption of their own felicity. Consequently, the elders give thanks to the Lord because they also contemplate the evil things from which he has delivered them.
In human custom, when something is divided by lot, that lot seems to fall by chance to this man and another to that man; in holy Scripture, however, it is not so. And at times I used to ask myself whether the holy fathers would have committed the decision about so great and so weighty a matter to lots; and if this had been done thus among the saints, then it would seem no wonder concerning other men, or the Gentiles, if there were nothing extraordinary in those things which are said by the saints to have been divided by lot. But let us see whether perhaps we may find something set down in the Scriptures which may make plain to us what power is contained in the lots. Let us begin, then, from Leviticus, where it is written: "and they shall take," it says, "two lots; one lot for the Lord and one lot for the apompaeus," that is, for the one who sends it away. "And upon whichever the lot of the apompaeus shall come, he shall take that goat, and shall lead it living into the wilderness, and shall let it go there in its release. But the other goat they shall offer to the Lord," and the rest that is there: things which of course they know who read them. And again, where Moses divided by lot "to the tribe of Reuben" and "to the tribe of Gad" and "to the half-tribe of Manasseh," which had asked to receive across the Jordan that land which the children of Israel had seized. But "Jesus" also "gave," according to the commandment of the Lord, "to Caleb the son of Jephunneh" and "to the tribe of Judah a lot." And he gave also to the tribe of "Ephraim" and to that which remained, the half-tribe of "Manasseh." And after these things, "he gathered," it says, "the assembly of the children of Israel" and said: "I will cast the lot and bring forth the lot in the sight of the Lord, if you first, describing the land, bring me a description of it." And thus, after these things, when the lots had been cast, the inheritance is distributed to the people of God, and this lot is set in motion not by chance, but according to that which was predestined by God. Finally, the tribe of "Benjamin" there received the first lot, where "Jerusalem" was; after this the tribe of "Simeon" the second; after this "Issachar"; then "Zebulun"; then "Asher"; after that also "Naphtali"; then "Dan." Among whom last of all come those three tribes which had descended from the concubines of Jacob.
Dictionary and topics
Shiloh — Generally understood as denoting the Messiah, “the peaceful one,” as the word signifies (Gen. 49:10). The Vulgate Version translates the word, “he who is to be sent,” in allusion to the Messiah; the…
Tabernacle — (1.) A house or dwelling-place (Job 5:24; 18:6, etc.). (2.) A portable shrine (comp. Acts 19:24) containing the image of Moloch (Amos 5:26; marg. and R.V., “Siccuth”). (3.) The human body (2 Cor.…
Ephraim, Tribe Of · The tabernacle continued a long time in Shiloh, a city of — The tabernacle continued a long time in Shiloh, a city of
Liberality · .Israelites at the erection of the tabernacle — .Israelites at the erection of the tabernacle
Shiloh · .Tabernacle lo — .Tabernacle lo
Tabernacle · Was set up: In Shiloh — Was set up: In Shiloh
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Joshua 18:1-10
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.
1. Congregata est autem universa multitudo filiorum Israel in Silo, et collocaverunt ibi tabernaculum conventionis, postquam terra subjecta erat coram eis.
2. And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet received their inheritance.
2. Remanserunt autem e filiis Israel quibus non diviserant haereditatem suam, septem tribus.
3. And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are you slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers has given…
Israel had been encamped at Gilgal in the Jordan Valley (14:6). Shiloh was about twenty miles north of Jerusalem, in the hill country of Ephraim. By setting up the Tabernacle there, Joshua made Shiloh Israel’s religious and political center. The Tabernacle remained at Shiloh until the Philistines captured the Ark (1 Sam 4:10-11).
Rashi on Joshua 18:1
And there they made a dwelling place for the Tent of Meeting. [This refers to the Tent of Meeting] that they had constructed in the wilderness.1Since Scripture does not identify the Tent of Meeting, Rashi explains that it is the same one they had constructed in the wilderness. It did not have a roof, but it was a stone structure on the bottom and was covered with curtains above.2Zevachim 24b. During the fourteen years since they entered Eretz Yisroel, the Mishkan remained at Gilgal. They had been too occupied with conquering and dividing the land to establish a permanent dwelling place for the Tent of Meeting. Once they began settling in the land, they established a House of God. The walls o…
What, then, the reasoning of the lots might be, I kept inquiring within myself, that from the many testimonies of Scripture I might come to know what lay hidden. Indeed I found in the Scriptures that even Gentile men had made use of lots, at that time when Jonah was sailing and a storm pressed upon them. For those who were sailing say: "let us cast a lot and let us know for whose cause this so great evil has come," as though the lot had such power that it could betray the one for whose cause the danger threatened those who sailed. And although they were Gentiles and strangers to the knowledge of God, yet they are not deceived in this opinion, but the lot betrayed to them what was true. Finally, "the lot came," it says, "upon Jonah." Seeking, then, concerning these things, I find also Solomon in the Proverbs saying: "the lot restrains contradictions and decides between the powerful," showing, as it were, that "contradictions" cease where the lot is cast. But since I found not a few such things about lots reported in the Old Testament, I turned myself also to the New Testament, to see whether perhaps even there lots are despised, or whether not even there is the use of them cast aside; and I find that at one time, when one Apostle was lacking from the number of the Apostles and it was necessary that another be substituted in the place of Judas, the Apostles, coming together—who indeed were far wiser than those who now ordain bishops or presbyters or deacons—chose "two" and "set them" in the midst; nor yet did they permit to themselves the judgment concerning these, so as to make him whom they themselves might have wished, but "praying," it says, "they cast a lot between those two" whom they "had set" in the sight of God, that is, "Joseph, who was called Barnabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias." "And the lot fell," it says, "upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles." For, prayer having gone before, the lot conveyed the divine judgment not by chance, but by providence. But still I kept seeking in the New Testament, wherever a lot is named in Christ or in the Church, or in mystical matters and such as seem to pertain to the soul. I find Paul writing to the Ephesians saying concerning Christ: "in whom," he says, "we were called by lot, predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
