But go ye now unto my place, which was in Shiloh
A city in the tribe of Ephraim, on the north of Bethel, and the south of Lebonah, and not far from Shechem, ( Judges 21:19 ) here were the tabernacle, the ark and altar of the Lord, and the sacrifices; and therefore the tabernacle is called the tabernacle of Shiloh, ( Psalms 78:60 ) , and here the Lord calls it his place; the place of the house of his Shechinah, as the Targum paraphrases it; and where he would have those people go; which is not to be understood locally, but of their taking this place into the consideration of their minds, and observe what was done to it, and became of it; though it was once the place where the Lord dwelt, and where his name was called formerly; as follows: where I set my name at the first;
when the children of Israel first entered into Canaan's land, the tabernacle was set up and established in Shiloh, in Joshua's time, ( Joshua 18:1 ) and there it continued to the times of Eli: and see what I did to it, for the wickedness of my people Israel;
he refused and forsook his tabernacle there; he suffered the ark, which was fetched from thence in the times of Eli, to be taken and carried captive, and that because of the sins of his people, ( Psalms 78:60 Psalms 78:61 Psalms 78:67 ) ( 1 Samuel 4:4 1 Samuel 4:11 ) . Jerom F13 says, in his time, the altar that was pulled down was shown, though scarce the foundations of it were to be seen. Now the Lord would have these people consider what was done to Shiloh; that though this was the first place where the tabernacle was set in the land of Canaan, and so the inhabitants of it had antiquity on their side; yet this did not secure them, nor the tribe it was in, from being rejected by the Lord, when they sinned against him; nor should the tribes of Judah and Benjamin think themselves secure because of the temple of the Lord, since they might expect he would do to them for their sins what he had done to others before.