What Does Jeremiah 7:12 Mean?

(12) **My place which was in Shiloh.**—The history of the past showed that a Temple dedicated to Jehovah could not be desecrated with impunity. Shiloh had been chosen for the centre of the worship of Israel after the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 18:1), and was reverenced as such through the whole period of the Judges. It had not, however, been a centre of light and purity. It had been defiled by wild dances of a half-idolatrous character; by deeds of shameless violence (Judges 21:19-21), and by the sins of the sons of Eli (1Samuel 2:22). And so the judgment came. It lost the presence of the ark (1Samuel 4:17; Psalm 78:58-64); its people were slaughtered by the Philistines; it fell into decay. It is possible, as the words “temple” (1Samuel 1:9; 1Samuel 3:3) and “house” (1Samuel 3:15; Judges 18:31) applied to it suggest, that substantial buildings may have gathered round the original tabernacle, and that those wasted ruins may have given a special force to Jeremiah’s allusion. It will be seen from Jeremiah 26:6; Jeremiah 26:9; Jeremiah 26:11, that it was this reference that more than anything else provoked the wrath of priest and people. They thought with a half-concealed exultation of the fate of the earlier sanctuary in Ephraim, which had given way to that of Judah. They forgot that like sins bring about like punishments, and were startled when they heard that as terrible a doom was impending over the Temple of which they boasted. It would appear from Jeremiah 41:5 that the ruin was not total, perhaps that it was still visited by pilgrims. Jerome describes it as a heap of ruins. It has been identified by modern travellers with the village of *Seilun.*