Who is Shiloh? (Genesis 49:10)

The most well-known rendering of Jacob’s prophecy about Judah comes from the King James Version of the Bible:

Genesis 49:10 KJV The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

One question naturally arises: Who or what is “Shiloh”? People have different views depending on how they understand the Hebrew word for “Shiloh”.

Option 1: a Person

One popular view is that “Shiloh” is the name of a person. In this case, then this prophecy would be referring to the Messiah by the name, “Shiloh”. This is certainly plausible, since the Messiah is given other names in the Jewish Scriptures, such as “Immanuel” or even “David”.

This view is adopted in the KJV, NASB, ERV, and ASV.

Option 2: a Place

Another view is that “Shiloh” is the name of a place. Indeed, Shiloh was a place in the Bible (Josh. 18:1).

However, if “Shiloh” here were a place, then the rendering, “until Shiloh come,” would make less sense, since it is unnatural that a place should “come” to another place. Rather, it could be that the action of the verb “come” is done by another entity—most likely the “sceptre” mentioned earlier in the verse, since that is the nearest preceding noun.

In this case, the meaning of the prophecy would be, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah… until it [the sceptre] comes to Shiloh.”

Option 3: a Present

These last two views explore the possibility that the Hebrew word for “Shiloh” was not meant to be a name.

According to the Masoretic Text, the traditional Hebrew text of the Jewish Scriptures, the Hebrew word for “Shiloh” in Genesis 49:10 is spelt and vocalized as šiylōh (שִׁילֹה).

However, the Masoretic Text could be mistaken. It could be that the word should be spelt and vocalized as two separate words instead: šay lōh (שַׁי לֹה). The first word, šay, means “gift; tribute”, while the second word, lōh, is a preposition meaning, “to him”.

In this case, the meaning of the prophecy would be, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah… until tribute comes to him.”

This view is adopted in the ESV.

Option 4: the Possesser

This last view is that the first part of the Hebrew word for “Shiloh”, šiy, is an alternate form of the relative prefix šə- (שְׁ). The remaining part, lōh, is taken as an alternate form of the preposition lōw, meaning, “to him”. Thus, the Hebrew word for “Shiloh” is understood to mean something like “he to whom it belongs”—or simply, “its possessor”.

In this case, the meaning of the prophecy would be, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah… until its [the sceptre’s] possessor comes.”

This view is adopted in the NIV, NLT, CSB, NET, and WEB.

Conclusion

Scholars hold differing views about the meaning of “Shiloh” in Genesis 49:10. In any case, due to the royal language in the prophecy, this passage is popularly understood to be a prophecy about the Messiah—the Promised King whom God will send.