Shiloh was where the Holy Sanctuary was located prior to the Jerusalem Holy Temple. It is first mentioned in the Book of Joshua, which also states that the Holy Sanctuary was built there and stood for about 400 years during the era of the Judges. In the Book of Samuel, Shiloh is mentioned as a religious center, where Elkana and his family go to give sacrifices to G-d. During that pilgrimage, Elkana’s wife, Hana, asks G-d to give her a son and eventually gives birth to Samuel the Prophet.
Shiloh is believed by researchers to have fallen into ruin after the Israelites’ unsuccessful war with the Philistines, in which the enemy took the Holy Ark captive. The Ark was soon returned to Israel, but was never brought back to Shiloh. Instead, it was taken to Kiryat Yearim until King David had it delivered to Jerusalem.
Archaeological findings indicate that a Jewish presence continued at Shiloh until the year 722 BCE, when the Kingdom of Israel was defeated by Assyria. According to the Book of Judges and the Mishna, unwed Jewish women traditionally went to the vineyards of Shiloh to dance on Tu B’Av.
Shiloh is north of Beit El, Israel, where the excavations are currently being carried out under the auspices of the Archaeological Staff Officer for Judea and Samaria in the IDF Civilian Administration Antiquities Unit and the Binyamin local authority.
The following photos reveal the artefacts discovered and the archaelogists at work in Shiloh.
Hebrew into English Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV)
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This is a list of the books of Written Torah, in the order in which they appear in Hebrew translations. The Hebrew names of the first five books are derived from the first few words of the book.
Torah (The Law): Bereishith (In the beginning…) – Genesis Shemoth (The names…) – Exodus Vayiqra (And He called…) – Leviticus Bamidbar (In the wilderness…) – Numbers Devarim (The words…) – Deuteronomy
The Hebrew Ten Commandments Details
Exodus 20:2-17
Deuteronomy 5:6-21
For Judaism, the Ten Commandments are a special set of spiritual laws that the LORD Himself wrote on two stone tablets (luchot) that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai.
In the Scriptures these laws are called the “aseret hadevarim,” the “ten words” or “ten utterances”. In rabbinical writings, they are usually referred to as “Aseret haDiberot,”
In Christian theological writings they are called the Decalogue which is derived from the Greek name “dekalogos” (ten statements) found in the Septuagint (Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 10:4), which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name.
In Judaism the Torah has a total of 613 commandments which includes the ten from the Decalogue. Traditional Rabbinical Jewish belief is that these commandments apply solely to the Jewish people.
Numbered Hebrew Ten Commandments/Alphabet
Israeli archaeologists have made a stunning historical discovery: a Hasmonean king conquered Gaza and the Negev, and for decades prevented the Nabateans of 2,000 years ago from using the Incense Road from the South to Negev Highlands. It was the Incense Road that the Nabataeans used to transport precious spices such as myrrh and frankincense to the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt. Alexander Yannai was the great-grandson of Matityahu, the Jewish High Priest who led the Hasmoneans in fighting for Jewish religious freedom and autonomy from the Seleucids (Syrian Greeks), as marked by the holiday of Chanukah. According to Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus (Yannai) conquered Gaza in 99 BCE, and built a fortress with four towers inside an earlier Nabataean caravanserai (roadside inn).
With the aid of this fortress, Yannai thus blocked all Nabataean activity along the Incense Road, and in effect forced them out of the Negev. Erickson-Gini, who serves as scientific editor of the excavation stated this revolutionary discovery will redraw the maps of the region which describe that era and greatly increase the territory governed by the Hasmoneans. “Despite the evidence of the historial Josephus, according to which King Alexander Jannaeus conquered the southern coast of the Land of Israel and the harbor in Gaza, which was of paramount importance to the Nabataeans; and even further south, no clear archaeological proof had been found in the field because historians were inclined to dismiss the possibility that the Hasmoneans did indeed control the Negev.
IAA researchers are currently processing finds from archaeological excavations at sites located along the Incense Road that were previously exacavated by the late Dr. Rudolph Cohen of the Department of Antiquities. One such site is Horvat Ma’agurah, located on a ridge 3.4 kilometers west of Sde Boker. The site is situated at a strategic point overlooking Nahal Besor, where the Incense Road was located, connecting Petra with Gaza.
It is now clear that the Hasmoneans kept hold of the fortress located on the Incense Road, the principal trade route of their Nabataean enemies until the year 66 BCE, thus blocking any enemy movement along the road between Halutza and the Northern Sinai. This cut off trade between Petra and the ports, dealing a death blow to trade throughout the Negev for decades.
The discovery also validates the claim that another Nabataean site — Nessana, where a multitude of coins of Alexander Jannaeus were discovered — was actually ruled by the Hasmonean king. “Another interesting fact is that the army that Alexander Jannaeus engaged was for the most part a mercenary force composed of non-Jewish soldiers, which was confirmed based on the imported vessels that were found alongside the Jewish vessels there, and from the wine that was brought there from abroad.
