Message: "Re: meaning of Shiloh"

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Re: meaning of Shiloh

by Andy ;—) (guest)

1/15/2005, 10:18 PM

This question was put on the board in July, and this was my answer:

When we were kids we used to watch a tv series called "The Men from the Shilo Ranch" and I believe this has to do with your name. In the bible Shilo is a place-name, not a given name. It is spelled with an H in the end or sometimes without. The biblical village was situated about 35 km north of Jerusalem (and a little bit to the east). Its name may be derived from an Aramaic word "sheleh" meaning "peaceful, quiet" (Hebrew: "shalev" = "safe"; "shalva" = "safety, peace").

There is one vers in the bible where the word "shilo" refers to a person: Gen 49,10. The meaning is clear: "ruler". Probably the Hebrew text is damaged and an initial M was omitted at one point. Or else it may be from Accadic "shilu" meaning the same. One guy proposed "new-born" as a translation (from Hebrew ShaLaL = to pull out), but I'm afraid he had the story of Jesus in mind …

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- Tieliebirds +4

1/16/2005, 8:09 PM

Hi, Andy!

Thanks a lot for helping my feeble brain. Yes, it was me the first time, too :o) I'll be sure to copy your explanation down so I don't have to ask again! Thank you again for being gracious enough to help me yet again!

- Andy ;—) (guest) +3

1/16/2005, 11:04 PM

Sorry, Shiloh!
I just forgot how forgetful we all can be … Honestly: I started looking it all up from nothing and after a while realised that I had done this before.
So whenever you feel the need to find out about your name - I have still got my books (if I can find them).

Andy ;—)

- Tieliebirds +2

1/17/2005, 10:04 AM

another question...

Hi Andy! So, "sheleh" is an aramaic word for "peace". I'm wondering, does the surname Saleh possibly come from "sheleh", too? It's the last name of a friend of mine whose family is from Jordan (they're Muslim). I've always thought Shiloh and Saleh seemed kind of similar, and with the root word "sheleh" it seems even more so. Any ideas? Thanks again.

- Andy ;—) (guest) +1

1/17/2005, 1:52 PM

I don't know, someone who knows Arabic should answer this. The Arab names supplement of Hanks/Hodges only has SALAH (goodness, righteousness; in fact part of the name Saladdin, Salah al-Din) and SALIH (same root, similar meaning). So there seems to be no peace in these. About the pronunciation of the initial S I'm not sure, there is a little dot beneath it and the book doesn't say what this means (there are also names starting with Sh).

Sorry, that's all I could find. In fact I don't know much about Aramaic either, I took a course 20 years ago and didn't pick up much then. But at least I can read it and understand a little because it's related to Hebrew.

Andy ;—)

- Tieliebirds

1/17/2005, 3:00 PM

Hey Andy! Thanks for trying! I need to learn some more languages... All I have is English, German and some Spanish.

- Jae (guest) +2

1/16/2005, 4:02 PM

I keep seeing the meaning "peaceful" or "peace" in books and on sites, etc.

- Miss Claire +1

1/16/2005, 4:06 PM

There's mixing with Shalom ("peace") and Shlomit (Salome, "peaceful"). It's really easy to see the difference though, that's why we think most sites & books are terribly bad.

- Andy ;—) (guest)

1/16/2005, 10:59 PM

I don't think, this is due to a confusion between Shiloh and Shalom; obviously the Aramaic word "shele" (peaceful) is in the place-name SHILOH, and this is where "peace" comes in. As I wrote, the Hebrew word is "shalev".

Andy ;—)

- Andy ;—) (guest)

1/16/2005, 3:03 AM

… and it was *you* I gave the answer to … ???

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