" But this festival must also
have taken root among the Israelites at a tolerably early period.
According to Judges xxi. 19 seq. there was observed yearly at
Shiloh in the vineyards a feast to Jehovah, at which the maidens
went out to dance. Even if the narrative of Judges xix. seq. be
as a whole untrustworthy as history, this does not apply to the
casual trait just mentioned, especially as it is confirmed by
1Samuel i. In this last-cited passage a feast at Shiloh is also
spoken of, as occurring at the end of the year, that is, in autumn
at the time of the _asiph_, /1/ and as being an attraction to pilgrims
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1. LTQPT HYMYM (i.e., at the new year) 1Samuel i. 20; Exodus
xxxiv. 22. In this sense is also to be understood MYMYM YMYMH
Judges xxi. 19, 1Samuel i. 3. Comp. Zechariah xiv. 16.
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from the neighbourhood. Obviously the feast does not occur in all
places at once, but at certain definite places (in Ephraim) which
then influence the surrounding district. The thing is connected
with the origin of larger sanctuaries towards the end of the period
of the Judges, or, more properly speaking, with their being taken
over from the previous inhabitants; thus, for example, on Shechem
becoming an Israelite town the _hillulim_ were no more abolished than
was the sanctuary itself.
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