event · E0011
Destruction of Shilo חורבן שילה
Israel carried the Aron into battle against the Pelishtim at Even HaEzer — and lost it. Chofni and Pinchas died with the routed army; old Eli, hearing that the Aron of God was taken, fell backward from his seat and died. The Mishkan that had stood at Shilo for three and a half centuries never recovered its place; Tehillim remembers the day as God abandoning His own dwelling.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- חורבן שילה
- Also known as
- Capture of the Ark, Churban Shilo
- Era
- bible
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 2871 AM
- Academic
- c. mid-11th century BCE (destruction layer at Tel Shiloh)
- Date range
- c. 890 BCE (traditional reckoning)
- Precision
- approximate
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Pelishtim defeated Israel at Even HaEzer; "the Aron of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Chofni and Pinchas, died" — and Eli, hearing the news, fell from his seat and died.
Confidence is for what the biblical text states. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| Tehillim reads the catastrophe as the end of Shilo itself: "ויטש משכן שלו" — He abandoned the Mishkan of Shilo, the tent He had made to dwell among men, and gave His strength into captivity. | biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| Seder Olam ties the threads together — Eli judged Israel forty years, and on the day he died it quotes "ויטש משכן שלו" — placing the fall of Shilo at the close of Eli's forty years, c. 2871 AM on the traditional count.
See Mishkan Shilo (Mishkan Shilo), the atlas's entity for the sanctuary this event ends; its own claims carry the 369-year tenure tradition. Excavations at Tel Shiloh show a destruction layer conventionally dated to the mid-11th century BCE.
|
tradition | ★★★☆☆ |