Shiloh () is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as a city and as denoting a person.

Shiloh as a city

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Shiloh is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as an assembly place for the people of Israel where there was a sanctuary containing the ark of the covenant until it was taken by the Philistines. According to the Book of Joshua 18:1, it was at Shiloh that the "whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled...and set up the tabernacle of the congregation...", being the tent which housed the ark. Later on, the portable tent seems to have been enclosed within a compound or replaced with a standing structure with "doors" (1 Samuel 3:15) a precursor to the Temple that survived until the time of Samuel.

At Shiloh Samuel was raised by the priest Eli and later himself served as priest there. When the Israelites were defeated at the battle of Aphek, their Philistine foes (who already had captured the ark of the covenant) apparently destroyed the shrine (1 Samuel 4).

The site of Shiloh is usually identified as modern Seilun, about eight miles north of Bethel.

Shiloh as a person

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The term "Shiloh" occurs also in Gen. 49:10 in a phrase translated in the KJV as "(..) until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." This has led to one interpretation that "Shiloh" also refers to a person and is by Christians generally understood as denoting the Messiah, "the peaceful one," as the word signifies.

The Vulgate Version translates the word, "he who is to be sent," in allusion to the Messiah; the Revised Version, margin, "till he come to Shiloh;" and the LXX., "until that which is his shall come to Shiloh." It is most simple and natural to render the expression, as in the Authorized Version, "till Shiloh come," interpreting it as a proper name (comp. Isa. 9:6).

According to others this reading of Genesis 49:10 is somewhat problematical, but is the one taken, for example, by Bishop Latimer in his Lincolnshire Sermon for the "Third Sunday in Advent" (1552) and more recently by the followers of Joanna Southcott. Some Christians believe Gen. 49:10 to be a prophecy for Jesus while some Muslims believe it is a prophecy for Muhammad.

Part of this text is taken from Easton's Bible Dictionary

Other References

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Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzodeck's Insight into Shiloh http://www.koshertorah.com/PDF/shiloh.pdf (a Kabbalist perspective)

Tabernacle and Jerusalem Temples | Tanakh places | Silo (biblischer Ort) | שילה (אתר במקרא)